Even a Failed Dessert Tastes Pretty Good
1.
The Heavenly Shield.
Once a day, it stopped any attack absolutely—an artifact of transcendent grade. Through Nahan's absurd blunder, a guaranteed enhancement ticket had been spent on it, and now it was an Ex-rank bound item: the heirloom of House Gardner, in which the soul of their progenitor, Balak Gardner, lay asleep. Look at it from any angle and it was an outstanding artifact. And yet—
"Ugh. War is such a pain."
"Pardon? A war?"
"The Heavenly Shield is gone. A war's going to break out before long. What else?"
Which was exactly what he wanted to know. Why?
He turned that question on Marin, and she answered with a perfectly grave face.
"Give me my cookie back."
"...I already crushed it up and swallowed it."
"......"
Faced with her languid horror, he was just wondering whether Radiant Light had a single normal person in it when Tehelan, silent until now, held out the candy on the desk.
"Take this, at least, for the moment."
"Ah! Thanks, Tehelan!"
"Not at all."
Crinkle, crinkle.
While Marin lost herself in the candy, Tehelan began, quietly.
"As you all know, we Gardners have guarded this place from the founding of the Empire to this day."
House Gardner, the margraves of the frontier. Between the lands of the demonkin and the lands of men, they had raised an unyielding wall along the beast front and protected the Empire for generations—the guardian house of the Iron Wall. Valiant warriors filled their ranks, and mercenaries crowded them as well. But if anyone asked whether those warriors were the greatest reason the front had held, Tehelan would shake his head and answer like this: a rampart built more than a thousand years ago bore over nine-tenths of the defense.
"The wall is solid in itself, but it shows its true worth only when it resonates."
Raw guardian-stone lay mixed among ordinary blocks. When that ore resonated together with aura, a barrier as hard as an iron wall rose over the whole of it.
"But as the wall's size and length make plain, every resonance demands a staggering amount of aura."
Tehelan glanced at Hestia, and she nodded along.
"Every guardian stone in the wall is raw ore. Even you, Brother, could not last a full day. Keeping the wall up consumes an enormous quantity of aura."
"You don't know which lasts longer until you try—!!"
Balkan was just flushing up to shout when Tehelan checked him with a look.
"Do not act rashly."
"...I apologize."
Only after that apology did Tehelan go on.
"In any case. The sole reason Gardner's wall has held until now is the Heavenly Shield."
The Gardners' progenitor. An artifact that Balak Gardner, Hero of the Iron Wall, had made after the wall was finished. The records said ancient dragoncraft had gone into that shield, and it generated aura without cease, like the very heart of its master—like Balak's own heart.
And not just any aura.
"Not aura on the level of an ordinary artifact. Aura of the same caliber as our progenitor's."
By the laws of nature there is no spring that never runs dry, no oil field that is never exhausted. The Heavenly Shield had made even that possible.
"And so the heads of House Gardner have, generation after generation, used the Heavenly Shield to drive the wall's guardian stones every single day."
But not long ago, after Black Wolf's raid, the Heavenly Shield was lost, and the wall now stood a breath from going dark. Because Tehelan poured out aura every hour, it was still being held at the barest minimum—about one percent of normal—without quite dying. Even so—
"That, too, ends in three days. Afterward, the wall's protection will vanish."
Which was to say—
"The demonkin are likely to invade before long. And if war breaks out that way, the chance we fall within a matter of days is high."
When Tehelan finished, a heavy shadow settled over every face.
"This is more serious than I thought."
"Ah—then all you have to do, Asha, is stay posted here for the whole war!"
"Suppose I do guard this place, as you say, Balkan. What if something on the level of a legion commander shows up on another front in the meantime?"
"...Damn it."
Through it all, Tehelan continued as calmly as ever.
"Yesterday's scrying confirmed it. The demonkin front that borders us has begun to stir."
"Already? How many days has it even been since we got back?"
The demonkin. Their ability to reproduce was poor, but their bodies far outstripped any human's. Warlike by nature, they had fought humankind since ancient times, until the great clash around the Empire's founding sent them tucking their tails and hiding in their own territory. Each of them was so strong that they had scattered into factions and left one another entirely alone, interfering in nothing. But—
"This time is different. The moment they sensed something wrong with the wall, they seem to have restored every bit of the damage Radiant Light dealt them when we broke through."
Just as Tehelan said, they were swiftly repairing what Radiant Light had done to them and reforming the front. Put only a little differently—
"If we cannot recover the Heavenly Shield, war will break out before long."
War. Most of them had lived through one, and a heavy silence held. Inside the free priest Ian Red, Nahan thought something else entirely.
We're fucked.
He'd snatched it up on a whim because a transcendent-grade item might be useful, and it turned out to be the very thing keeping war from breaking out between the Empire and the demonkin.
If they'd said so sooner, I wouldn't have taken it. The setting book never mentioned any of this.
He wanted to put it straight back where it belonged, but using the enhancement ticket had made it a bound item that belonged to Nahan alone. And along with it had come a thoroughly useless free gift.
"Hmph. I thought he was a knight of the house, and he's the head? Gone soft, bloated on peace."
A prickling guilt had him suffering on the inside while he pretended to think it over. Then Asha, silent until now, turned quietly and spoke.
"All of Radiant Light, listen. From this moment, we go to subjugate Black Wolf."
We are genuinely fucked.
A head-on clash between Radiant Light and Black Wolf was the fourteenth of fifteen episodes. Watching how fast the bad endings were being headed off, he had expected the timing to move up—but if it was pulled forward this far, he would fail to save one of the two. The Emperor, or the Hero.
Think. Think, think—!!
He was whipping his thoughts around, scrambling for the best move he had, when—
"...Ah."
Marin's face twisted, and a vicious killing intent burst out of her as if it had detonated.
What? Had she noticed that he had an imprint, too?
He swallowed without meaning to and watched her warily. Her killing intent passed him by and fixed on Tehelan.
"You want to die, Tehelan?"
"...I am sorry. All of this happened because I was lacking."
Tehelan, just as startled, bowed his head as if he had no face left to show. That was not why.
"What are you talking about. The candy you gave me."
"...Pardon?"
"This is red ginseng candy."
Golden light flashed in Marin's eyes as she warned him with the utmost gravity.
"Hurry up and have them bring something else. Cookies, or cake. If you're late, I really will get angry."
"I will fetch it myself."
"Strawberry."
"Yes. Strawberry cake."
Tehelan released the barrier, opened the door, and went out to get it himself.
Ptui!
Only then did Marin spit the candy out. She moved to throw it away, and hesitated.
"What is it?"
"...It's still candy."
That was Marin's nature. She did not forgive any dessert being thrown away. No matter how bad it tasted, she never handed it off to someone else. She swallowed it. She considered that the least courtesy owed to desserts that had been born into the world.
She'll handle it, I guess.
This was not the time for thoughts like that.
What do I actually do? Slip by once a day and quietly top the aura back up? And if I get caught? I'm still too weak to fight on my own.
His head spun tight.
Ah. I want sugar.
The thought came unbidden, and then—
...click.
Something toasty and sweet rolled into Nahan's mouth. A wholesome fragrance spread at once. He broke his concentration, looked down, and found Marin just coming off her tiptoes, asking bluntly:
"How is it?"
Honestly, it was the sort of thing he'd pick at, one or two pieces, if it happened to be sitting around. Not the sort he'd go out and buy.
"Well... it's not inedible."
He mixed the truth in roughly and answered. Marin smiled, languid, and nodded.
"That's just how it is."
"Pardon?"
"You need a few failed desserts around before a tastier one can be born. And the failed ones taste pretty good in their own way, too."
A clear gold lingered in her drowsy eyes. Realizing, despite himself, why Marin was the Great Sage, Nahan nodded along with her—and she whispered, small:
"I'll trust you and go to sleep. When it tastes better later, help me out a little then, too."
"Pardon?"
"Don't play dumb. You can see all of it, too."
He followed the jerk of her chin and turned. Standing there was Balak Gardner.
"...Uh. Did that child just—me?"
Balak's panic lasted only a moment.
"Ah, the thing is, what happened was—!"
Nahan, far more panicked than that, reached out as if an excuse might still save him. Marin slipped aside, and she was faster, speaking to Asha.
"Don't worry, Asha. The Gardners' progenitor is dwelling in that one."
"...What do you mean?"
"Mmm. Not dwelling. Is the progenitor just loitering around? Or did he catch him? Well, I can see why he'd take a liking... Ah, I don't know. I'm going to sleep. Anyway, tell that one to handle it."
Rubbing her sleepy eyes, Marin used mana to snatch the cake and cookies out of Tehelan's hands, then waved at Nahan.
"Bye. See you again soon."
That was the end of it.
Shatter—!
Like glass breaking under sunlight, Marin scattered in a brilliant spray and was gone.
Left behind were Balkan and Hestia.
"The progenitor of our house?! What do you mean by that, red-haired priest!!!"
"Don't shout, Brother. Ask one thing at a time. No—I'll ask. First, may I inquire what sort of ability it is?"
And Tehelan and Asha.
"Both of you, be still. Is he not our benefactor, a heaven-sent guest? That is—might I ask what manner of authority you have awakened?"
"...So the second authority was real. Priest, just what are you..."
Hemmed in by four pairs of glittering eyes, and smiling through all of it—
I am actually going to lose my mind.
Everyone's friend, Ian Red.
I haven't even worked out the script yet.
What was he supposed to call the authority? Communion with souls? Guidance of souls? Soul-something, anyway?
After a brief, desperate think, he seized on the best move he had and opened his mouth.
"My second authority is......"