The Illegal Auction
Luna's first memory.
It was of someone abandoning her in the Ash-White Wasteland and turning away without a shred of mercy.
She had been very small then, and yet the memory remained as vivid as if it had happened only a moment ago.
"Please, don't die. Be happy, Luna."
Golden hair glittering beneath the moonlight, and emerald eyes that brushed past her in a single glance.
"Ah, Mom...!!"
Certain that to miss would be the end, Luna flung out her hand—but she was left there without catching so much as a fold of cloth.
The Ash-White Wasteland. A forsaken stretch between the County of Gardner and the Viscounty of Coppel, left to seethe with magical beasts. The Empire rarely bothered to look that way, so criminals of every stripe had gathered and raised colonies of their own. There was nowhere to sleep, no food, not even drinking water. A withered land.
Cast away in that place, Luna wandered from spot to spot like an animal, simply to stay alive.
Squelch. ...Chew, chew.
She tore open the rotting corpse of a magical beast, drank its blood, and took the flesh.
"Gyaaagh!! Ghk...!!!"
She slipped past the brink of death more than once. Even when she survived, the world around her never changed.
Squelch. ...Chew, chew.
She ate in order to live, and the only days that followed were days of thrashing because she did not want to die. How many months passed like that—or was it years?
"...Kkh."
She was trembling before a death that had crawled right up to her face as she picked at the corpse of a special demonic beast, when a masked woman held out a hand.
"Die now, or die a little later. The choice is yours."
Luna seized that hand at once, barely managed to lift her head, and murmured.
"...Mom?"
"...No. I am not your parent."
But—
"If you want, I can become one."
"...Kh, huk! ...Ah?"
Consciousness went out, then flared back on.
I blacked out for a second.
Even so, Luna still held her smile. She was nearing her limit all the same. So were the children who had just watched Orlan die.
"Hic, Orlan..."
"I don't want this... Not anymore, hk, I said I don't...!!"
"Orlaaan..."
Of the five children, the three besides Orlan and Luna burst into tears.
"One million gold."
"Sold to Number One. Intended use?"
"The same as just now."
Crack. Sizzle. Gulp.
The same manner of death repeated three times.
Smiling, Luna dragged her blurring focus back into place and watched how the children ended. Orlan, who had only wanted to know what it felt like to be full. Mina, who had only wanted to try on a dress. Bang, who had only wanted to see the sea. Karin, who had only wanted to go home.
"...I told you not to cry."
In the end, every one of them died.
This place was the Troupe — Loss. A garbage collective that scraped money together by selling goods to high nobles.
Today, too, Luna—the only one left alive—lowered her gaze to Mother as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Whether she looked or not, the woman opened her mouth in that same cold voice.
"Luna. Opening bid, one hundred million gold."
A price so far beyond the other children that even high nobles could not raise a hand lightly.
"Enough, enough. Let's be going."
"Damn it. Last time they held out so nicely and didn't even cry."
"Let it go, friend. Don't cling to pocket change. Well, there'll be another chance next month."
The spectators gathered their things in a rustle of cloaks, and—
"...Tsk."
Number One, too, had already vanished.
"Closed."
The moment Mother confirmed it and declared the auction over, the bright lights went out.
...Creak. Creak.
"Kuhk! Puhah—hah, hah!!"
Luna's feet struck the ground. She dragged in a breath and barely managed to lift her head.
"Mom...!!"
Beneath the darkened tent of the troupe, with everyone else gone, the only thing in sight was Mother. On instinct Luna checked the shadows first. Only after she was certain he had disappeared did her face crumple, and she crawled across the floor.
"They're dead, they're dead again...!! Everyone but me!!"
"...Shh."
"I told them not to cry...!! I gave them everything you told me...!!!"
She shook.
Mother caught Luna's pitifully trembling hand and whispered at her ear.
"Smile brightly. That's how you live."
"There. Try smiling a little more."
"Brighter. Smile until it feels as if your mouth might split."
"That's how you live."
As she spoke, Mother removed her mask, and what showed beneath was a smile so bright it was frightening.
...Click.
She set that same mask over Luna's face and whispered to the very end.
"Don't tremble. That's how you live."
"When it's too hard, put on the mask and cry."
"Try, and try again."
"Until someday you can smile even with the mask on."
Eyes curved thin in a smile. The corner of a mouth, twisted. A sack stuffed full of gold coins.
...Squeeze.
In the instant one hand clenched Luna and the other clenched the sack of coin, a voice thick with rage rose from the darkened seats.
"Get away from her."
A voice steeped in horrific hostility.
......No.
Mastermind (Ex) activates.
Through the Necklace of the Sword Ghost, a portion of this space's Coercive Force (Ex-) is absorbed.
Mastermind (Ex) manifests at its maximum.
It was a voice steeped in horrific killing intent.
Immediately after they entered the tent of the Troupe — Loss.
Dalan, moving through the silence, gave the hesitating Ruby a light tap.
"Pull yourself together, Ruby."
"Ah. I'm sorry."
Only then did a point of light stir in eyes that had been clouding over with fear. Seeing it, Dalan turned slowly, taking in the dust-settled interior, and asked.
"Nothing in the records? A branch chief ought to be free to look."
"I checked just a moment ago, actually, and there's nothing at all. You know how it is. The Ash-White Wasteland is treated about the same as the demons' lands."
Ruby was right.
The Ash-White Wasteland. Until a certain incident four years ago, it had been a den of criminals. Now that they had all been swept away, it was nothing more than abandoned ground. When the hero's party marched out, sightings of magical beasts dropped sharply, and by that trickle-down the land had grown far safer than before—but the beasts had not vanished entirely. Because of that, the mercenary union, the nobles, the merchants, everyone balked at investing here, and even the gathering of information had been halted as unnecessary.
Dalan let out a small sigh and dropped his shoulders, plainly disappointed.
"So in the end, we settle it with our own bodies."
If they had possessed so much as a blueprint of a structure like this tent, it would have helped. Perhaps sensing that regret, Ruby smiled and held out a sheet of paper. On the fresh white page, a floor plan had been drawn in something red.
"I finished it before we came in."
"Bandit dolls, was it?"
"Flesh dolls. You can just call them babies, if that's easier."
Dalan let the madness lingering in Ruby's eyes pass and studied the plan. A semicircular stage. Seats fanned out opposite it. Set aside the devices installed on the stage, and it was an unremarkable circus tent.
"Is that all?"
"Probably?"
Dalan nodded, folded the plan with care, and tucked it into his coat. To get inside they would have to draw aside one flap at the entrance, and another doubled in front of it. Between the two, his eyes sharpened. He sensed something spilling off Luna.
"Luna will be up on the stage."
"And Hanryang is standing still in front of it."
Their positions were fixed in a breath.
"We take them alive if we can. If we can't..."
"...we kill them. After we force the release of the binding to the Leader, if we have to."
Blue eyes and red met for an instant.
"I'll take Hanryang."
Throb.
Veins standing out along his neck, Dalan dropped his stance and nodded. Luna, already wearing a smile, covered her mouth and grinned.
"Leave Luna to me."
Was it because their covers were, respectively, one of the ten strongest in the world and a branch chief of the mercenary union? The two of them meshed better than he had expected as they closed, slowly, on the inner tent.
"I'll open it on three. One, two, three."
"Right."
"Now. One, twooo..."
"Three!!"
Snap!!
With Dalan's hushed count, the inner canvas was drawn aside, and the interior it had hidden lay bare.
And—
"...Ah, damn..."
Not his usual stone mask. Hanryang wore a mask steeped in dense, baleful qi.
"Ah, damn it!!!!!"
Crrrack!!
Fist clenched tight, Hanryang swung at Dalan with no room to dodge.
"Well now. I picked the wrong fight, didn't I?"
The instant Dalan let out a short bark of a laugh, Hanryang's fist slammed into him.
BOOOOM!!!!
The ground lurched with a thunderous roar.
"Ruby, bring out the captain dolls!! Dump every last one of them!!!"
Having barely blocked the blow, Dalan turned and shouted toward Ruby—but what entered his vision was Luna in a mask. Ruby must have been taken only a moment before. She had started to tear the mask from her face and then frozen mid-motion.
They were waiting for us.
Since when?
...From the very moment we were separated and fell. It has to be.
A rampage with no known cause. A technique akin to brainwashing had already taken three members of Black Wolf—and with himself, that made four. In that instant Dalan judged that a fight to the death was the right call. But—
It's all right if I rest, isn't it?
The face of a man he trusted rose in his mind.
He hurled his sword out of the tent, let a thin breath of laughter escape, and murmured.
"My apologies, but it seems you'll have to handle this in our place, Leader."
Those were his last words.
"Smile brightly. That's how you live."
Click.
By a hand that coiled around him like a snake, an ash-gray mask was set upon Dalan's face as well.