Tournament, Part 5
Humans sometimes anthropomorphize entities that are by no means human.
It is an instinct.
The incomprehensible is terrifying. The causeless is horrific.
Rather than accepting that a river flooded "without reason" and killed countless people, it was easier to believe that someone's actions had angered the river god.
That was easier to comprehend. It was something they could accept.
Rather than trembling in helpless terror, it was far better to appease the god's wrath, offer sacrifices, and pray that such a disaster would never happen again.
And that illusion was not limited to gods.
Spirits were the same. They spoke, and they sometimes appeared in strikingly beautiful human forms, but they were fundamentally not human.
A spirit of the lake was closer to water than to humanity. An undine was closer to the wind than to a human. Even if they spoke and moved at someone's behest, their fundamental nature did not change.
Even if you sew eyes, a nose, a mouth, and limbs onto a piece of cloth to fashion a human shape, and no matter how much you treat that doll like a person, it will never truly become human.
And demons were no different.
"Look, Claire. I know you worked hard, but... I don't have that much money, you know?"
It was an ordinary tavern. Unless they were students from poor, commoner backgrounds, no one would even spare it a glance.
I've been to places like this a few times, but...
Kellin, too, had no reason to visit such a place unless she was on a special mission.
"I-is it really that bad? But... I was starving! Surely I can eat this much!"
"Well, yes, but..."
Wade pulled out his wallet and counted his coins, contemplating how devastating this expense would be for him.
Kellin stared blankly at the sight.
It was so ordinary. Utterly trivial.
It was as if that entity shared a human heart, worrying over the same petty things as a mortal.
That couldn't be. It shouldn't be.
A demon capable of drawing power from a Fragment of the Void—an entity fundamentally different from humans—should not wear such an expression.
...
If that was an act, it was a flawless one. Neither the imperial princess nor Katarin would have suspected his true identity upon seeing that absurd smile.
Witnessing him swallow the Fragment of the Void that day was a stroke of luck unique to Kellin, one that no one else possessed.
No, wait... was it really luck?
Knowledge was a curse. Perhaps it would have been better if she had never witnessed that scene, if she had lived her life knowing nothing.
Then, she wouldn't have had to live in such constant terror.
"Hey, I wasn't the only one eating! Lilian, you ate tons of meat too! And you're an elf!"
"What does being an elf have to do with eating meat?!"
"Well, elves are supposed to..."
Lilian scooped up the warm meat stew with a wooden spoon and shouted back at Claire defensively.
"I told you, I'm a hunter. Who do you think we shoot with our bows in the forest? Apples?"
"I guess that makes sense."
Claire scratched her head sheepishly.
"But in old stories, they say elves don't eat meat..."
"High elves usually don't. They say it helps with spirit magic... Honestly, if you ask me, they only indulge in that luxury because they have food rotting in abundance."
As if to prove she was not one of them, Lilian cleanly finished her meat stew.
Wade watched the scene warmly. But as soon as he looked down at his wallet, he fell back into a deep silence.
Should I... help him?
Kellin had plenty of money. She was a knight serving Katarin, and the money she received for expenses or as a personal salary was substantial.
It was an excessive amount of money for four people to eat and enjoy themselves.
With this...
Perhaps there was no need to offer help first. Wade was not the one Kellin owed her loyalty to.
But if, by some chance, he considered her withholding funds a betrayal, her life could be in danger.
"Wade... can I order just one more serving?"
"Go ahead, order..."
His slumped posture was excessively human.
He wore such an easygoing expression that it made Kellin doubt whether everything she had seen that day was merely an illusion.
...
But she must not let her guard down.
Even her master, Katarin, could put on countless faces depending on the situation.
A merciful saint, an experienced knight. Whatever the face, she had the ability to project herself as whoever she wanted to be.
Wade was surely no different. There was no way this wasn't all an act.
"Could you spare me a moment of your time?"
"Huh? Sure."
Leaving the tavern with him, Kellin led the way to the back of the building, where the darkness would shroud them.
"What is it?"
"I know this may be a pointless worry, but I prepared this in case you might need it."
Kellin handed Wade a small pouch.
A pouch filled with heavy coins—her emergency funds.
"...What's this for? It's your money. You keep it."
"But just now..."
"Look, I'm from a noble family too. It's not like I'm actually broke just because the girls ate some meat. It's just that my unexpected expenses got a bit high."
She couldn't understand. She couldn't accept that the Wade she had seen absorbing the Fragment of the Void and the man standing before her were the same person.
Unexpected expenses. Those were not words that should come from the mouth of someone with that kind of power.
It was as unrealistic as a dragon worrying about land ownership rights, or an angel worrying about a tax bill.
"Keep it. It's not like I'm trying to extort money from you."
She couldn't tell.
Wade was an entity fundamentally different from ordinary humans.
At the very least, he was a historic dark mage who had found a way to extract power from a Fragment of the Void.
In a more conventional sense, he was the incarnation of a demon archduke who had contracted directly with the Demon God, and the hypothesis that he was the avatar of the Demon God itself was not without basis.
She couldn't bear it without asking.
"Lord... Wade."
"Yes, Kellin?"
He was relaxed. He smiled at her so comfortably that it even suppressed her fear of the unknown.
It was not a smile of mockery, disgust, or calculation, but one that simply seemed to reveal his honest feelings.
"What is it... that you desire?"
The side of him he was showing now couldn't possibly be his true self.
It is normal for a peasant child to bow to a village chief, but it is extraordinary for an emperor to bow to a village chief.
It meant there was a massive desire worth enduring that humiliation, that pain, and that suffering for.
"Well, my wishes aren't that grand."
There was no way he possessed a human heart.
If so, every action he showed was mimicry. A mimicry filled with a glistening desire, suppressing humiliation and pain.
What kind of immense desire was he enduring all this for? Kellin couldn't help but ask.
"Just... for everyone to live happily together?"
"..."
It was terribly simple, and foolishly reckless.
But that was not a wish someone who wielded demonic energy like him could ever have.
"That's about it. Anyway, I won't take the money, but I appreciate the thought."
Wade left after saying those final words.
Kellin stared blankly at the spot where he had stood, hoping that something—at least something her eyes could perceive—would emerge from the darkness.
She won.
Standing alone in the sparring arena, Olivia looked down at the fallen knight before her, feeling a faint sense of superiority.
"Y-you despicable wench! I knew you were this kind of person!"
She had thought she could never win. The knight before her was stronger, had trained longer, and had better teachers.
Every time she grew stronger, he grew stronger. Even if she steeled her resolve, he steeled his as well.
She thought it would be like that for the rest of her life.
"You used demonic energy! You fawned over Katarin and got her to share that power with you, didn't you?!"
"Sharp of you."
It was the truth.
Just a tiny bit, just a fraction. She had borrowed the power of darkness.
She didn't have to sacrifice much, nor did she have to participate in Katarin's evil deeds.
With just that, she had easily bypassed years of effort and achievement.
"But right now..."
Her sword pointed at the fallen knight's throat.
"I seem to be the stronger one."
More people might curse her. More people might vent their anger and spew hatred.
But she had power.
A terribly potent power that she could never have obtained through ordinary means.
Ah...
The people who used to look down on her, the ones who thought she would be forgotten after being abandoned by the imperial princess, were now looking at her with different eyes.
Fear, transcending mere disgust, was mixed in the gazes directed at Olivia.
She didn't feel like she could lose. As long as the opponent was a student, she felt no knight could defeat her.
“I’m sorry, but when it comes to getting stronger... this is the only way I know.”
Katarin's words faintly brushed through her mind.
It was only once. If she could obtain this much power from a single transaction, it could never be considered a loss.
The lady of the Erast family had trusted Olivia and generously bestowed immense power upon her.
She had been recognized.