Ascension Ritual
I looked at the woman’s face again, carefully this time.
I’d thought she looked familiar before, but after hearing her answer, the resemblance to Atisha stood out even more clearly.
Her eyes were so gentle they verged on drowsy, and her jawline was narrow and elegant. Her voice, too, seemed oddly similar to Atisha’s.
If you took the fatigue out of Atisha’s face, maybe this was what she’d look like. That was the impression I got.
“She has a grown daughter with that face…? That’s basically cheating…”
“It happens.”
“How is that something that just happens? She looks the same age as Atisha, or maybe even younger….”
“A mother who looks younger than her daughter? That kind of thing only happens in manga,” Daeun muttered.
She already knew that demons were immortal, so why was she acting surprised now?
Still, I could understand why she was reacting like that.
Even if I were being generous, the clan chief looked young enough to pass for underage.
“If you’re the ones my daughter brought, then I can trust you, I suppose. Yustina. That is my name.”
“Your way of speaking is weird.”
“You insolent child, and you’re in any position to say that?”
“Hmm. Fair enough.”
The moment I picked a pointless fight, she shot right back at me.
How petty. How perfectly, infuriatingly logical. She really did seem fit to lead an entire clan.
“Canaria. Just call me Cana.”
Starting with Yustina’s introduction, we all introduced ourselves one by one—Daeun, Celine, and me.
Daeun raised a hesitant hand.
“Um… how should we address you?”
There was no mistaking the nerves in her cautious voice.
“Why are you so tense?”
“...From a human point of view, this is basically like being granted an audience with a king. I’m actually more amazed that Cana can just answer her so casually.”
“Hmm… is that so.”
I heard Daeun out, but I still didn’t really get it.
It wasn’t as if the people she’d met until now had been ordinary.
Right next to her were me and Celine, a former knight commander and an apprentice saintess, and she’d even met the vice-commander and a prince.
She hadn’t been this nervous then, so why was she nervous now—
“Wait, did you just look down on her because the kingdom already fell?”
“No!”
...That was it?
I gave her a disappointed look, and Daeun hastily shook her head.
“Cana and Celine were already people I’d gotten close to before I found out who they were. So I guess I didn’t have time to be shocked…. And Ashié honestly didn’t feel real to me, either.”
“Hmmmm….”
“B-but I was nervous when I talked to Mr. Aaron! It might’ve been a little different kind of nervousness, though…!”
“Different kind?”
“Ah. Pretend you didn’t hear that.”
You’re either nervous or you’re not. What did she mean, a different kind of nervous?
I kept pressing her, but Daeun clamped her mouth shut and refused to answer.
...Something fishy is going on.
Even so, I had no choice but to let it go.
It wasn’t like it was just the two of us here, and we couldn’t stand around chattering forever.
“Have you finished playing around? Then may I speak?”
Sure enough, just as the conversation began to die down, Yustina cut in.
“Humans call me the Demon King, do they not? You may keep calling me that if you like, or you can call me Lady Yustina. Either is acceptable.”
“T-then I’ll call you Lady Yustina.”
“Mm. Yustina.”
“And where, exactly, did you leave that title when you came here alone?”
“In the Ardeena Continent.”
Yustina stared at me for a long moment, clearly with plenty to say, then finally looked away without a word.
Her expression was the very picture of I’d rather die than suffer through this.
“...Ahem.”
A single clipped syllable escaped her lips.
She seemed to struggle for the rest of her sentence, then squeezed her eyes shut as though she’d made up her mind.
“...If it is not urgent, could you tell me a little more about Atisha?”
It seemed one little “she’s doing well” wasn’t enough to soothe a mother worried sick about her daughter.
“Was that really so hard to ask?”
“...How could it not be difficult, when I am asking after the child I drove away with my own hands? Any person with a shred of decency would think as much.”
“Ah. That… I didn’t know.”
...I had no idea.
When I scratched my cheek awkwardly, Yustina let out a sigh so deep it sounded like it came from the soles of her feet.
“I was not speaking to receive an apology, so think nothing of it. It was my own burden to bear; whom else could I blame?”
“Atisha made it sound like she left of her own accord.”
“That is because the child is kind enough to cover another’s shame. ...From your face, I take it you wish to know what happened.”
“If I’m being honest… yes, I’m curious.”
“It is nothing particularly grand.”
Yustina’s eyes were on us, but she wasn’t really seeing us. Lost in distant memories, she began to speak slowly.
The former clan chief of the demons—Yustina’s husband and Atisha’s father—had been the only one to succeed in the Ascension Ritual, and yet he had also been a failure.
If he underwent one more ascension, he might be able to solve the Magi that plagued Laxia.
Carrying that hope, he attempted the ritual again, only to vanish without a trace along with a massive surge of Magi.
The one who took his place as clan chief was Yustina.
“As he did, so did I attempt the Ascension Ritual. Is it not a leader’s role to bear the responsibility proper to their position?”
Atisha disapproved of Yustina’s decision, but she didn’t oppose it.
After all, Atisha was a demon too.
She could understand Yustina’s heart.
“The day I underwent the Ascension Ritual, a monster called a Dimensional Beast appeared.”
“...Huh?”
I’d been listening quietly, but now I tilted my head.
“When was this?”
“I do not remember exactly, but it must have been decades ago. Why do you ask?”
“Just curious.”
The first Dimensional Beast to appear on the Ardeena Continent had only shown up a little over a decade ago, and she was saying this had happened decades earlier.
Wasn’t that timeline off?
Do time and space flow differently on the Ardeena Continent?
For a moment I entertained that ridiculous thought, then snorted.
As if.
I’d assumed the Dimensional Beast that appeared a little over ten years ago was the first one ever to emerge in the world of Silia, but apparently that wasn’t true.
Edel hadn’t told me this specifically, but maybe the place where polluted mana gathered was simply more vulnerable.
Yustina resumed the story she had paused at my question.
“But I was in the middle of the Ascension Ritual, and I only heard of that monster’s appearance afterward. Had it appeared a little earlier, or a little later, I would have gone out there myself….”
Normally, Yustina would have stepped in and stopped it herself as the strongest of them all, but the thing had arrived at the perfect moment, as though it had been waiting for the exact instant she was occupied with the ritual. Because of that, she had been unable to block it in time.
So Atisha had gone in Yustina’s place.
“Because of that battle, Atisha lost one of her horns. For us, a horn is no different from the source of life itself. Even after becoming like that, Atisha still wished to remain here, but Laxia’s environment was not forgiving enough for her to endure with only one horn.”
So Yustina ignored her daughter’s wishes and decided to send her away to the Ardeena Continent.
To save Atisha.
It was a decision made not just as the chief of the Purifier Clan, but as a mother.
“How could I simply watch my own daughter dying? I could not bring myself to do it. She was all I had left.”
“I see.”
“Do you not think your reaction is rather dry?”
“Then did you want me to cry?”
“...Forget it. It is like begging for a bow after handing out a gift.”
It wasn’t just my sense of emotion that was the issue.
Honestly, it wasn’t a sad story, so wasn’t it natural to react calmly?
“Atisha was sorry about losing her horn, but she also said she was proud of it.”
“...What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said.”
She’d fought a strong enemy and won, protecting her clan in the process.
Her broken horn, Atisha said, was the medal that proved it.
“If the person herself says she’s proud of it, wouldn’t it be more rude to pity her?”
“...I see now that I had not thought it through. You insolent child, you were right.”
“Could you maybe stop calling me ‘insolent child’ every time?”
“I am merely bestowing the title because you returned without the courtesy you should have brought with you.”
“...You’re petty.”
So she was still holding a grudge over me not adding the “Lady” part.
“In any case, that concludes my story.”
She was looking at me expectantly.
Now that her story was done, it was my turn to talk.
I grabbed Daeun by the sleeve and pulled.
“Your turn. Go on.”
“...Huh? For what?”
“She said she wanted to hear about Atisha. Hurry up and tell her.”
“M-me?”
Stringing together a whole story wasn’t really my style.
Daeun looked flustered at having the task dumped on her, but with Yustina’s urging stare telling her to speak already, she reluctantly opened her mouth.
From the moment she first met Atisha to the time she brought her to Laxia.
Aside from the ambush by Kruomo’s shadow, I didn’t think anything especially remarkable had happened, but Daeun had a talent for dressing up even ordinary events until they sounded vivid and exciting.
So much so that even I, who had been there, listened with interest.
Was that what you called a broadcaster’s gift?
It was the moment my judgment that she would have made a great bard gained even more credibility.
But….
Isn’t she embellishing this a little too much?
I twisted a lock of hair around my finger, looking sour.
She made me sound like the hero of the village, like someone who had fought off shadows without hesitation and at the cost of her own body.
All sorts of grand flourishes piled on top of one another until I didn’t know where to put myself.
“I don’t remember you looking especially self-sacrificing, so this is surprising.”
“Of course. Our Cana is incredibly kind.”
“No. I think you’re probably the one seeing me correctly.”
See? Even Yustina said so.
I was just an idiot who had overused her power, not some saint who had thrown herself on the altar to save the demons.
If anything, the one who’d really put herself on the line was Daeun.
“She fought against a breath attack just to save a child.”
“Oh….”
“T-that was recklessness…”
“Even if it was reckless, giving your life for another is not something just anyone can do. You should be proud.”
After Daeun’s exploits came Celine’s medical work—how she tended to the demons day and night without rest.
By the time the stories were over, Yustina’s eyes had softened considerably.
I was glad all that embarrassing gold-plating had paid off in the end.