With That Face?
A life with nowhere to stay. I wandered the streets and drifted, and drifted, until I washed up in a gang's flophouse.
Until I met my friend, I lived there as if I were one of the family. And if that year taught me a single thing, it was this: I had to look after my own hide.
"Hey, Nahan. You were in on it too, yeah?"
"No. I was just standing there."
"What?"
"You brothers were the ones who smashed the shop. I only stood still."
"This little shit thinks he's funny? Hey. This time you haul it in and walk back out. I'll stuff your commissary account nice and fat."
"No. I don't want a red line on my record."
"What? You saying you're done living with us?"
"Yes. I just want to sponge off you until I come of age, then leave quietly."
"...Bring the bat. Get down."
"Yes, sir."
As you can see, it was hardly smooth sailing. Still, the lesser evil is always far better than the worst.
And that was no less true now.
"You've got two eyes, so crushing one is fine? How can you say a thing like that?"
"That was you who—!!"
"I asked you to show me your skill at interrogation. I never told you to pluck out an eye. Monster Dragon. I didn't take you for such a frightening man."
"Haa... Of all the skin-and-bones wretches..."
Judging by the identification plaque, he was one of the Emperor's secret inner circle. If I got tangled up in this and dragged in, I wouldn't last three days. Then Black Wolf would run wild again, and if the Hero Party came home in the gap—
Utter catastrophe.
If Black Wolf died, I died with them. And if I died—I, who was both Black Wolf and the Yellow Dragon—there would be no one left to keep the Emperor safe from Eclipse.
So.
"I've done nothing wrong. I'll be going."
Sorry, Uncle Dalan.
One wrong step and I could be saddled with the dreadful charges of contract killing or criminal instigation. I was about to bolt when the man seized my arm.
"Nothing happened, now did it?"
"Hm?"
"I only came to speak with Lord Yellow Dragon. Nothing happened at all, did it?"
His eyes shone so clear they were nearly transparent. Catching the meaning behind them, I asked one last time.
"That's a nasty bruise on your eye."
"I fell by myself."
"...Did you."
"Yes. I thank you for your concern, but there is a more urgent matter just now, is there not?"
In other words: let the violence of a moment ago be something that never was, and hear him out. Mean-faced as he looked, the man had a broad and upright character.
"If you put it like that, I've no reason not to listen. Speak."
Only when I let my guard down completely and nodded did he offer the plaque again.
"Allow me to introduce myself properly this time. I am Amelia, captain of Black Spot, the knightly order His Imperial Majesty founded in secret."
"Amelia? Amelia, with that face?"
"Pardon?"
"Ah."
Having blurted out a slip worthy of the Yellow Dragon, I hastily papered it over with manners.
"No, I—forgive me. The name is, how shall I say... remarkably pretty."
"Heh heh heh. I understand. It is the sort of name one only hears when children play with dolls. But His Majesty bestowed it on me himself, so I live with a certain pride in it."
"...You've had a hard time of it too."
"Not at all. I am truly content."
Amelia smiled as if he meant it, then his face hardened once more.
"In any case, as I said before, His Majesty will wholly withdraw the named commission he issued to Lord Yellow Dragon."
"The named commission?"
"Yes. By tomorrow a fee is to be paid to the Mercenary Union, generous enough that they will take no offense. He bids you accept it."
Saved.
A commission I would have had to cancel anyway, canceled for me—and they're even paying the fee.
I wanted to whoop. I swallowed it and asked again, grave as I could manage.
"The reason?"
"...That is."
Amelia glanced about, drew a little closer, and whispered.
"Because His Imperial Majesty himself looked upon the carnage of moments ago."
Looked upon it?
The central plaza is close to the imperial palace, but it isn't open enough to be seen from the palace.
I was still puzzling over how he could have watched when Amelia went on.
"Thus the alert regarding Black Wolf and his subordinates has been raised to the final stage. He is assembling a response team suited to that threat."
"A response team?"
"Th-that is..."
Trailing off, Amelia drew something from his breast and held it out. A golden envelope. The Emperor's seal stamped at its center. Another named commission.
"Couldn't you simply tell me?"
"Forgive me. It is a secret only Lord Yellow Dragon may know..."
He was watching Dalan, so I nodded and opened the letter. It rustled. Unlike the last commission, a sheet of pristine, costly paper revealed itself. I read what was written there, and could not help asking.
"Is what is written here truly the truth?"
"...It is."
The words stood bold upon the page.
Black Wolf and his subordinates have surpassed every estimate of their strength. Assist the Imperial First Legion in sweeping away Black Wolf and his band.
It was the first incident that, in the original, had forced the Hero Party to turn their march around. If things ran on as the original had them, Black Wolf and the Imperial First Legion would clash within a week. The result would be Black Wolf's total victory. Casualties would be unavoidable, and among them would be the family of the Hero Party's Guardian.
The Emperor's incompetence, thrown into stark relief.
The death of the Guardian's kin.
Eclipse's play in the press.
For those three reasons the Hero Party would resolve to turn back, tilt not toward the Emperor but toward Eclipse, and stand against Black Wolf. And the result—
The bad ending.
Get a grip. Think.
The story following the original was not, in truth, only a bad thing. Only if it followed the original could I make use of what I knew of it.
...But.
Does that mean I can stand by and watch a massacre I already know is coming?
It would not only be the Guardian's kin who died when the legion met Black Wolf. So many would fall that a grand joint memorial would be held afterward.
Of a force of eighty-three thousand six hundred and twelve, thirty-four thousand two hundred and seven were killed.
In print, that was all it had been. But if this place was truly real—
...I have to stop it.
I had never been an altruist, and I had not suddenly come down with hero sickness. But if I knew the disaster ahead, and had the strength to stop it—
Then I have to stop it.
That was all there was to it.
"...Lord Yellow Dragon?"
Still searching for another way, I lifted my head and met Amelia's eyes.
"When does the operation begin?"
"In six days."
Six days. I had expected as much, but it was still cutting it close.
"I'll accept. You may go."
"Pardon? Already? If you have accepted, you will need a detailed briefing."
"I had quite a bout with those ruffians, and I'm tired. I'll be in touch soon."
"Ah... Forgive me for keeping you so long. I shall withdraw for today. Later word may be sent through the capital branch chief of the Mercenary Union."
"Do that."
"Then I take my leave."
Was it the sun's own blessing?
"...That is Lord Yellow Dragon, isn't it?"
"...Shh! He's speaking!"
"...Who's that in front of him? Looks like a villain. One of Black Wolf's men, isn't he?"
Secluded alley or not, people were beginning to gather. Feeling their eyes, Amelia spun about and vanished down a narrower lane. Only then did Dalan, who had been tucked into the corner, come over with a smile.
"I took him for a villain at a glance, but he's a sounder man than I thought."
"Who knows. That remains to be seen."
Eclipse had spread across the whole empire, and still it rarely showed its face. On the surface...
No. Talking to him, the man had seemed decent enough. Even so, I couldn't afford to relax.
"Anyway. We should go too."
"Already? Come this way instead. Smooth over today's business and they'll buy anything. Pick someone and let's drink on their coin."
"No. There's something I have to do."
"Something you have to do?"
Dalan cocked his head as if he truly had no idea. I leaned in and whispered.
"We're going to commit a kidnapping."
"What...!?"
He choked the shout down and whispered back, low enough for me alone.
"A kidnapping?! The alert has already been raised, and now this—what are you saying?"
"Exactly what I said."
"Then who on earth—!!"
As I had already laid out, three things would decide the Hero Party's withdrawal.
The Emperor's incompetence, thrown into relief.
The death of the Guardian's kin.
Eclipse's play in the press.
All three were meant to come of the clash between the First Legion and Black Wolf. But—
The Central Plaza has already fulfilled two of them.
The Emperor's incompetence, on display.
And Eclipse's play in the press.
Then the last one?
The Hero Party. The death of the Guardian's kin.
I finished the thought, smiled at Dalan, and let the words out softly.
"...May I ask the target?"
"The Guardian's own younger sister. Hestia Gardner."
This was not the Yellow Dragon's order. It was Black Wolf's.
Dalan's manner changed in a breath. Wearing his usual gentle smile, he bowed his head.
"All shall be as the Captain wishes."
"Too many eyes. Lift your head, Dalan."
"Yes, Captain. Then, before I summon Ruby Red, what should be done first?"
Simple enough. I answered in a solemn voice.
"Get us an inn."
"...Yes?"
"Somewhere with clean, soft beds."
"...Yes, Captain."
Well then. Until night falls... how about a nap?
Several hours later.
At the heart of the Gardner domain, in the northern reaches of the capital, stood the count's estate. A place that had been as peaceful as ever was suddenly in an uproar.
"I-It's Black Wolf!!"
"Black Wolf and his men are here!!"
"Protect Lady Hestia!!"
The cause was none other than a raid by Black Wolf. Just as in the Central Plaza that afternoon, black-clad ruffians had struck, wolf-marks on their masks. The Gardner lands lay some distance from the capital, but rumor is always swift, and always swollen.
"Monsters who've taken hundreds of heads!!"
"They chew people alive—guard your necks!!"
"Damn it, I said see to the young lady first!!"
The knights, hunched and shrinking, had eyes only for the two ruffians before them. They never noticed the single shadow slipping away, and so that shadow reached the place it had meant to reach: the most tightly guarded spot in all the Gardner lands, and yet the one most quietly set aside. The only younger sister of Valkan Gardner, Guardian of the Hero Party.
"I apologize for calling so suddenly at this late hour, but might I come in for a moment?"
"...That is not a door. It is a window."
"Well. A door is a door, is it not?"
Hestia Gardner's room.