The Bruised City (1)
Upgrading Rorschach was already this exhausting. And the ultimate goal of merely strengthening his abilities a little further was to deceive Bancart? It was irritating, but what choice did I have? Still, Rorschach was originally a relic with that level of performance. A magnificent steel spirit specialized in deception and trickery. A sleek blade with a beautiful sword body.
“Fine.”
Anyway. I wanted to eliminate Bancart without resorting to these methods. Sneaking into his heavily guarded residence to stab him through the heart was impossible. And loitering around during the ranking evaluation matches when security thinned out was equally pointless. The moment I appeared, that bastard would clearly hold back from revealing himself. So seeking out Sora to gain assistance was unavoidable… but honestly, that wasn’t the only reason.
I was already thinking about what would come after removing Bancart.
If I eliminate him, the position of Crown Prince will become vacant.
The current emperor still appeared healthy, but his fate of sudden death was already set in stone. From the game’s perspective, that day wasn’t far off. Which meant the next Crown Prince would inevitably become the next emperor… and the only one capable of filling that void if Bancart died was Cryan. After all, he was the sole blood relative Bancart had spared during his ‘blood purge.’
Therefore, it was only wise to build a connection with such a figure in advance. To create a debt of gratitude that I could later call upon. Nonedon Naigerse, the King of the Lower City who had taken Cryan’s keepsake, was a boss normally only encountered after Chapter 15 of the game. Setting out to meet such a boss at this point in time would naturally trigger every crisis sensor I possessed. But since I needed to form ties with Cryan and receive his help, I couldn’t afford to handle this sloppily.
Going to Nonedon is essentially giving Cryan back his life…
So now that things had come to this, I had to do everything in my power. Setting aside all the calculated aspects, wasn’t that simply a matter of trust and basic human decency?
That was why I was loitering in front of the city gates around lunchtime when Cryan finally appeared in the distance. The moment he saw me fully equipped in various layers of armor, he spoke.
“You’ve come in quite the heavy armament.”
“In the North, this is considered light armor. Depending on how things go, a fight could break out, so it’s well worth wearing this much.”
“I don’t have any such armor, though.”
“I’ll be assigning you a different task, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Well, even though this is my first time hearing about it, just the name ‘King of the Lower City’ sounds brutal, so I figured it wouldn’t be easy. That’s why the feeling isn’t great, and I brought what defensive measures I could.”
…Is this really your first time hearing about it?
The question rose in my mind, but I let it pass. He showed me the talisman hanging around his neck.
“This was given to me by Lady Gremory a very long time ago. With this, I should be able to survive one dangerous situation…”
“Well done.”
To that boy, I handed over an iron mask that wouldn’t constrict his breathing. It had enough clearance from the face to prevent stuffiness and offered excellent visibility. Since it was a spare of the one I usually wore, it would serve him just as well.
“What is this…?”
“In addition to your defensive measures, it will conceal your identity. It would be quite the scandal if word spread that academy students were causing trouble in the lower city, wouldn’t it? So just wear it.”
My attitude must have seemed too stubborn. He scratched his head but eventually put on the mask. It was regrettable that it was far too large for his head and kept slipping down. After properly adjusting the straps, Cryan asked me.
“So, you’re saying Sora is with Nonedon. Exactly where is he keeping it?”
At his question, I pondered how to respond before simply telling the truth.
“I don’t know.”
“Pardon?”
“I said I don’t know because I don’t know exactly. I’ve received information, but its reliability is low. Nonedon is a capricious man for multiple reasons.”
Cryan blinked in confusion at my sudden change from promising to find it to admitting I didn’t know. I quickly added an explanation.
“But there’s no such thing as something that can’t be done with effort. Just as you desperately want Sora, I desperately need your help. So I will do everything in my power to find your Sora. That much, I can promise.”
“How shameless.”
“Yes. It’s a shameless promise.”
“Then, so that I don’t become a fool for trusting you, could you at least guarantee that you will definitely find it? You’re a man with that much boldness, aren’t you?”
Cryan’s words weren’t so much a rebuke for my honest confession of ignorance as they were a demand for responsibility. It was the kind of answer that could only come from someone desperate to reclaim his memories.
“I guarantee it. Trust me.”
“Then what exactly was the information you heard, Sir Yohan?”
“That Sora is stored in Nonedon’s private quarters. The authenticity is uncertain, which is the problem.”
I explained our task to Cryan briefly and simply. In truth, this wasn’t information I had heard from anyone. It was merely a vague recollection from the game’s narration that Nonedon had always kept Sora in his private room. Whether it was actually there or not, I couldn’t be sure. But since it was the only clue we had right now, we had no choice but to cling to it. If it was stored there as described when we reached his quarters, that would be best. If not, we could simply deal with the next step according to the situation.
However, Cryan seemed to have doubts about my claim that it was kept in the private quarters.
“Why would that be?”
“Hm?”
“That Sora is just a seashell. It’s not exactly a valuable or important object.”
“…You’ll understand soon enough.”
“…Hmm, I can’t think of many reasons. If he’s keeping it as a trophy for killing our mother, I might truly come to despise that man.”
“I don’t think that’s the case—”
“You seem to know everything.”
Cryan spoke as if something felt suspicious. Yet his words did not continue to the end.
“…You can’t tell me everything right now, can you?”
“I haven’t known you long, but you don’t seem like the type who enjoys having others wipe your nose for you.”
Cryan answered immediately.
“You’re a considerate person. That’s correct. Since this concerns my life, it’s a question I’ve always wanted to solve with my own hands.”
“Wise choice.”
“So thank you for taking me along. My guide.”
The path lay this way. Cryan and I slipped into the shadows so we wouldn’t be seen, following the back alleys of Karlangk before descending through a manhole I had investigated beforehand. With a scrape, I closed the lid. The light that had seeped through faded completely. The stench of rotting rat corpses in the sewers was nauseatingly vile. Naturally, Cryan couldn’t have adapted to it; he simply kept retching in disgust.
“Endure it. The underground city will appear after a short while.”
“…I’m already trying.”
His footsteps following me showed no sign of stopping. On the contrary, he was even muttering to himself with strong determination.
“From the imperial palace… to the sewers… So I’ve finally arrived where I was meant to arrive. Strangely, I don’t feel any sense of rejection.”
It was self-hypnosis to preserve his fallen dignity. But unlike that, there was somehow a familiar sensation. It seemed his decompression sickness was improving.
If you continued down the sewers beneath Karlangk, you would eventually reach a cliff that seemed to stretch endlessly. Karlangk was a planned city built atop the scar where a massive meteor had once struck the mountain. Therefore, a cliff here meant the base of that mountain. In other words, the area beneath these sewers was likely where people had originally lived. Since the city beneath the sun was invisible, it had no official name, but the original inhabitants who had lived below from the beginning, as well as those who had been cast down from above, all called this place… the Bruised City.
What a gloomy setting.
After exiting the long tunnel of the sewers, it was like stepping into a nightscape. Although the sun was high in the sky outside, all that light poured only onto Karlangk above. The Bruised City beneath it was nothing but darkness, creating the illusion that it was already night. Thus, the residents of the Bruised City had plastered lanterns and glowing moss everywhere in their search for light. Look at those dense lanterns floating on the surface of the water. It felt less like a river and more like a sea of filthy water, yet the sight of lanterns blooming like a flower garden atop that great pier held a paradoxical beauty.
“I never imagined something like this existed beneath the streets I walked every day.”
Cryan, finally free from retching, marveled at the unexpected night view. He stopped in his tracks and stared blankly at the horizon beyond the pier. I told him,
“People from the upper city have no reason to come down here. Everyone living in this place, except for the original inhabitants, are criminals, illegal mages, or those who have been abandoned.”
“You seem to know the situation here better than most central officials.”
“What does it matter? I even know the person who took Sora.”
But while we were talking, Cryan suddenly flinched in shock.
“……!”
It was upon seeing the back of a middle-aged man quietly casting his fishing line far into the distance while holding a cigarette in his mouth beside the pier. I had no time to stop him. As if drawn by something, Cryan called out to the middle-aged man in a daze.
“—U-uncle?”
But the old man called ‘uncle’ answered indifferently.
“…What? What business does the Capital Guard have here? I don’t know anything, and I didn’t see anything. Even if you shake down a powerless, defeated piece of human trash like me, you won’t get what you want.”
“N-no, I’m sorry. I mistook you for someone else.”
“Then get lost. I’m busy.”
The middle-aged man had mistaken us—fully armed and with our faces concealed—for the ‘Capital Guard’ that maintained public order in the capital. But it wasn’t only him who was mistaken; Cryan had done the same. He must have seen the back of this complete stranger and thought it belonged to his uncle. When he returned to me, he muttered in confusion.
“My head is messed up.”
“What was that about all of a sudden?”
I asked him. “I’m sorry, Sir Yohan. It seems something’s wrong with me. I did come with some mental preparation, but ever since we came down here, something feels off… I keep getting these strange senses of déjà vu.”
“If you keep acting like this, it’ll be troublesome. We’re going to face the King of the Lower City, so you can’t behave erratically.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Even as he said this, I already knew inwardly why he was showing such unease. Since he was a playable character, he naturally knew the setting inside and out.
Cryan is recalling familiar memories right now.
Due to the shock of his mother’s death, he had completely forgotten all memories prior to the blood purge. But both his mother and maternal uncle were from the Bruised City. Not only that—Cryan himself had spent part of his early childhood here rather than in the imperial palace right after he was born. Simply put, this place was Cryan’s true hometown. Though he himself had not yet realized it, ever since entering this underground city so deeply connected to him, the defensive mechanisms hiding his memories were gradually rising to the surface.
“We need to find Sora quickly. Once we do, all the questions will be answered…”
He muttered it so softly it was almost inaudible, but I heard it clearly. No matter how much he had forgotten all his childhood memories, a few good memories had remained that even his defensive mechanisms could not erase. They were the memory of going to the seaside with his mother and making her a seashell necklace, and the presence of his maternal uncle who had protected him like a father—more so than his real father. Those two things. Because those memories existed, seeing this sea of garbage had clearly stirred something in him. The fact that he had mistakenly called out to that middle-aged stranger as ‘uncle’ a moment ago must have stemmed from the same thoughts.
Finding Sora will likely restore his memories faster than planned.
But there was no harm in that. He would realize it eventually anyway. Whether sooner or later made no difference. The calmed Cryan spoke to me quietly.
“So, where is this person they call the king of the underground?”
“You don’t need me to tell you. If it’s where a king would be, you’ll know it when you see it.”
“…Ah, is it over there?”
He looked around once more before finally spotting a massive ship placed atop what looked like a waterfall in the distance. It was so flat that it felt more like an enormous raft than a ship. What stood out most was the dome installed on top of it. It shone brighter than anything else here, serving as a powerful lighthouse for the Bruised City with its mere presence. Anyone could tell it was an important facility. That place was our destination—the floating arena operated by Nonedon Naigerse, the King of the Bruised City.
Though Nonedon possessed immense wealth and power, at this moment, his only interest was operating that arena. The current him was a man who knew nothing but fists, bloodshed, and life-or-death struggles. He even reigned as both the owner and champion of the arena, regularly defeating challengers with his fists while offering enormous prize money. That was why he was called the King of Fists. His record remained undefeated to this day. That floating arena was the city’s greatest landmark and symbol of royal authority. It floated proudly upon the sea, flooding the brains of citizens dying in depression within this lightless city with adrenaline.
Isn’t it strange? This place may be gloomy, but it is still a city where factories operate and it possesses its own economic power. If one became its king, one would naturally consider challenging the City of Light, Karlangk. Yet here he was, merely running an arena and testing his own life every day. It was laughable, but the reason was simple. Nonedon’s brain was also severely damaged by mental illness.
He couldn’t possibly be fine after beating his one and only precious little sister to death.
He was Cryan’s blood relative. He was the maternal uncle Cryan had been searching for so desperately. Though even if the two who had lost their memories met face to face, they probably wouldn’t recognize each other. Therefore, what we needed to find was Sora. Sora was the only common point between the two who had forgotten everything about the past.
But we ran into a major obstacle from the very beginning.
“Outsiders are strictly prohibited from entering anywhere except the main arena building.”
“I’m just going to the bathroom for a moment…?”
“Still not allowed. Outsiders cannot enter any side paths.”
This pattern again. Should I just kill them all?