According to Plan
Valkan thought.
The only one who knows whether Hestia is alive right now is the Black Wolf standing in front of me.
Even that was more likely a lie than not, but he had to be certain. Kill Black Wolf like this, and I'll spend the rest of my life clinging to an empty hope. There was always the option of dragging the truth out of him after he was dead, but the opponent was Black Wolf.
The extermination of the gutter rats. The extermination of the fanatics. Threatening the Emperor. Assassinating Hestia. Monsters who had done things that any middling force couldn't even attempt—and done them without taking a single loss.
Even if I asked Marin for a spell to pull information from the dead, there's no telling whether it would take.
Valkan reached his conclusion at once.
Keeping him alive and getting the information that way is the sure thing.
A judgment made not as the hero Valkan, but as one human being who had lost his family. Confirming whether Hestia lived or died came before annihilating the enemy in front of him.
But there was one thing Gardner had overlooked.
"What do you think you're doing, Valkan?"
Another hero.
And not just any hero—a woman who moved as if she had no emotions at all, beautiful as a machine, or a doll. Valkan knew her better than anyone, and so he could predict her next move at once.
Asha will press the attack.
The Radiant Hero—Asha Mirabell.
Gardner, Selena, and Marin each moved in service of a mission: world peace, the prosperity of their people, the pursuit of new knowledge. Asha's mission was only one.
The annihilation of evil.
She moved as if nothing else in the world mattered, so this time too, eradicating the Black Wolf and the man who led them would surely stand at the top of her priorities.
Clank. Clatter.
Resetting his grip on his shield, Valkan put Black Wolf at his back and dropped his voice.
"I'll handle this. Go back, Asha."
At that, Asha laid her holy sword across the shield and thought.
Ian Red said it. Hestia was certainly alive. Caught by the Black Wolf, still breathing somewhere.
But did that mean she should simply leave the Black Wolf and its leader alone?
The situation as it stood: Gardner's main force, neutralized. The greater part of the reinforcements, mercenaries.
Mercenaries have loose tongues. Rumors will spread. Rumors that even the hero party had been helpless before the Black Wolf. Most of it would be false, of course—fabricated by mercenaries who had only watched from a distance—and that was precisely why she had to be all the more wary. A rumor with no substance swells as it travels, and only those it concerns pay the price.
The Empire was already rotting under the Emperor's tyranny. The Black Wolf's appearance has only sped the rot along.
If, at a moment like this, word began to circulate that the hero party had grown weak?
Our party would lose its power as a deterrent.
The instant the Black Wolf's infamy outgrew the party's, the Empire would collapse. And so Asha Mirabell had to set her priorities straight.
If it were up to my heart, I would want to confirm Hestia's life or death first, but...
Ian Red. Did there not exist a truth that kind, upright man had sworn to at the cost of his life?
...He wasn't the sort of man who would lie. I won't doubt him. I'll believe him.
If they had staged her death and still kept her alive, there had to be a reason. If the Black Wolf had spared Hestia, why?
...To trade her for the Heavenly Shield?
Too little information for any finer inference, but of one thing she could be certain.
There is no chance Hestia dies within the next ten seconds.
Then—
Destroy the Black Wolf within ten seconds, and find Hestia through Marin.
The thought finished, Asha flicked a discreet glance at Valkan, who was fairly seething with venom.
I have a plan. Help me, Valkan.
That was what the look meant. Valkan, misunderstanding it completely, crushed his brow.
"So if I mean to stop you, I should try? You'll kill me along with Black Wolf, is that it?"
"...?"
Right. This is Valkan.
She had thought that rage over the news of Hestia might have awakened something resembling intelligence in him.
"Fine!! If you're going to come at me that viciously, I'll meet you with everything I have!!!"
Valkan was only Valkan.
And so Valkan thought.
Get in her way, and she means to kill me along with Black Wolf! I have to kill her before I die!
At the same time, Asha thought.
...He's just Valkan.
A hollow disappointment washed over her, and the edge of her holy sword dulled with it. Valkan did not miss the opening.
"Hup—!"
KAAANG!!
In the same instant as his one-sided misunderstanding, the locked holy sword and shield sprang apart. Valkan dropped his waist, set to charge; Asha recovered the sword that had been knocked from her hand. In that fleeting span, the two heroes' eyes met.
—JJEOONG!!!!
The shield, split into its two halves, and the keen holy sword crashed together once more. Valkan blocked the blade pouring down like a torrential rain and roared with all his strength.
"Gardner's shield is the best in the world!! It will never break before any power!!!"
"...Enough. Nothing to be gained from trading any more words."
The beast charging in, and the woman who had given up on persuasion, turned their arms on each other.
THUD!!
The shields strapped over each of his hands like great buckles unleashed the full measure of their destructive power—
...and a sword trailing countless afterimages bent like water, batting every strike aside.
A death match between monsters beyond even S-rank, too fast for an ordinary warrior's eyes to follow. Barely five seconds had passed, and already hundreds of exchanges were flying. Which was why the mercenaries were baffled.
"...Why are the two of them fighting?"
"Is that what matters right now, you idiot!! Look—Black Wolf can't even move!!"
"Heroes really are different!! To think that Black Wolf can't even budge...!!"
The Black Wolf's second assault, the destruction of Gardner's main force, and the call for reinforcements that followed. Their information was limited, so they only babbled about whatever they could see—but in any case, the thing Asha had feared did not seem likely to come to pass.
They were not, however, the only ones watching.
"......"
The man wreathed in black—the man giving off an aura as hideous as a god of slaughter—slowly turned his head, as if the mercenaries' chatter irritated him, and lowered his gaze.
At the same time a portion of that black energy leaked free and coiled around their bodies.
Mercenaries. Masters of survival, who begged for tomorrow with their own lives posted as collateral. The moment the energy touched them, several who had kept their mouths shut waved their hands and backed away.
"...!! W-wait!! It wasn't me!! I didn't say anything!!"
"That's right!! We didn't even dare put that name in our mouths!! No—we did not!!"
"Who was it!! Which bastard dared say that name so carelessly!!"
Words that, once this was over, would earn them a reprimand from House Gardner. But the mercenaries huddled together were all thinking the same thing.
Screw it. Dead men don't have to answer for anything.
Already shrinking under a look alone, the gazes of the B- to A-rank mercenaries swung as one toward the men who had cheered for the heroes.
"Y-you crazy bastards!! Won't you look away!? And you call yourselves comrades after that!?"
"Comrades, my ass!! We didn't even—!! No, we really didn't put that name in our mouths!!"
"Yeah!! The ones who screwed up should take the blame—why should the rest of us die with them!?"
Hunched and terrified beneath Black Wolf's gaze, they shoved the two mercenaries who had dared speak the name out of the group.
"Damn it, damn it!!!"
The plump mercenary who tumbled out first dropped to his knees at once and groveled.
"A-a misunderstanding. It's a misunderstanding, sir!! I wasn't the only one shouting—this bastard next to me egged me on, that's the truth of it!! What are you doing, you bastard!! Get down and beg already!!"
Dragged forward by that rough hand, another figure emerged, and Luna's brow—which had been hardening—twitched.
"Don't be afraid, everyone—just wait!! The strongest of the Continent's Ten, Lord Yellow Dragon, has come to protect us!! That's right...!!"
"The birth of a new hero!!"
The man who had planted hope in people during the incident at the central plaza.
"I refuse. What did I do wrong, that I should beg a villain like that for my life?"
"This bastard, I swear—!!"
"And I think you're all misunderstanding something. Our Mud Mercenary Company didn't come here to beg for scraps. We came to do the work we were paid for."
A crisp scent of grass, and the fresh smell of mud. The man was Mud.
"So I'll be helping as well. To wipe out the special-grade wanted criminal, Black Wolf."
The only one among the mercenaries who had not shrunk back struck the others aside and lifted his head.
...I'm scared.
If Lord Yellow Dragon had been brilliant and warm, the one called Black Wolf was dark and cold. The world outside was crushed down to a pinpoint, and his insides churned to slush until nausea rose in his throat.
Fight, and you die. Don't fight, and you die. Just standing here like this, I—
...die.
The moment he arrived at death, regret for everything he had never obtained came flooding in.
If I had power like Lord Yellow Dragon's. If I were sharp like Lady Asha, or solid like Lord Valkan, or wise like Lady Marin, or tenacious like Lady Selena. If I had even one of the heroes' strengths, I might have been of some small help...
No. Get a grip.
He ground his lip until it split, and the distant pain jolted his mind awake.
Even if I die like this, we have the heroes... and above all, we have Lord Yellow Dragon, the new hero. So even if he died here, if that death bought them information—
It'll be a great help to Lord Yellow Dragon.
A brilliant gold. With that light he overcame the fear of death, and Mud leveled his longsword at Black Wolf.
"Come down here, Black Wolf!!! I've come to avenge my comrade, sacrificed to the likes of you—Loren!!!"
Even if this is only a small death inside an enormous incident, my sacrifice will surely be worth it.
Nahan was impressed.
The novel had painted Valkan as a complete moron, and he had wondered if that wasn't laying it on a bit thick.
"Gardner's shield is the best in the world!! It will never break before any power!!!"
"...Tsk."
If anything, it didn't go far enough.
Well. Thanks to that, this is going smoothly.
The clash between Valkan and Asha. Everything unfolding now was happening under Nahan's design.
Asha confirmed Hestia's survival through Ian Red. Valkan, on the other hand, will have been convinced she was dead, no question about it. So if you told the man intent on killing Black Wolf that she was actually alive—and only as a hint, only in part?
He won't be able to kill me until he's heard the whole of it.
Asha was different. She already knew, through Ian Red, that Hestia was alive. But unlike Valkan, she would not be led around by an enemy, and once that enemy was gone she would have meant to find Hestia herself. Which was why he had predicted it.
Valkan, trying to keep Black Wolf alive. Asha, trying to kill him.
The two of them had no choice but to collide, and unlike Valkan, who had lost his mind, Asha would pull her punches so as not to kill him.
She's already used her ultimate, Judgment, so she can't overwhelm Valkan outright.
Then?
"Gardner's shield is the best in the world!! It will never break before any power!!!"
"...A bit much."
Until Asha persuaded Gardner, the fight between them would never end. Valkan, with a body to rival a Hero's, yet simple and brutish. Asha, who never showed her true feelings to anyone, and seemed to have none at all. The two had crashed together while thinking entirely different things, and unless Valkan's misunderstanding was cleared away, breaking free of it would not be easy either.
With this, he had secured both his immediate life and the time to lay his next plan.
The condition for ending the bad ending is Luna and Valkan clashing, just as in the original. As things stood, Luna would have to face both of them alone, and the risk was considerable.
...What do I do?
How was he supposed to peel Valkan and Asha apart, and leave only Luna and Valkan to fight?
"Gardner of the Shield is the best in the world!! Before any power, it absolutely doesn't—break, it will not!!!"
"...You got the order wrong."
"No!! What's wrong is your attitude, Asha—you won't even try to listen to what anyone else is saying!!"
...Ugh. So loud.
He was starting to feel as if he were getting just as stupid, so he turned his head to look around and clear it.
"...!"
"...!!"
"......!!"
What are those guys doing over there?
The mercenaries were keeping Hanryang in check—the man who had drawn a line and was waiting for someone to cross it—while chattering noisily among themselves.
"...!"
"...!!"
"......!!"
I can't hear a word they're saying.
Irritated, he furrowed his brow, and killing intent spilled that way. A few mercenaries flailed, and then two of them stepped forward.
"...!!"
The plump one flattened himself and rubbed his hands together. The familiar one looked at him in open disgust.
And what are those two supposed to be?
What is this? Have they split into a faction scared of us and a faction on the heroes' side? Hand that plump-looking hostage over to Hanryang, and please spare the rest of them?
...A hostage?
He was trying to give shape to a thought that surfaced like a tickle when—
A step.
A faintly familiar man walked forward, leveled a longsword at him, and shouted.
"......Wolf!!! .........rade!! ...............!!!"
Mm. As expected, he couldn't hear it.
But—
...A hostage situation. Not bad.
Thanks to that, a good idea occurred to him.
One thing at a time. Slowly.
Nahan reviewed the plan once more, and turned with certainty.
"Valkan Gardner. Asha Mirabell. Stop fighting this instant, or I'll kill Hestia."