The Five Races (1)
"Not bad."
I muttered while watching the screen. Marquis Prius—no, Marquis Prius—had returned from the Holy Land burdened with an enormous mission, and he was handling it far better than I had expected.
I never imagined he would come up with the idea of mobilizing the citizens to search. Publicly revealing the "suspicious paintings" to the masses was a bold gambit, but any fallout from that was his problem to manage.
"I stressed it over and over—beast forms are absolutely not allowed. He got the message, right?"
At some point a chat window had appeared, letting me pass my words directly to the marquis. Kenelm had probably thrown it together in a hurry so my instructions could reach that world.
Through that chat I repeated myself until it bordered on brainwashing. Only ears and a tail were permitted. Anything beyond that I would not allow. Stopping those who tried to go further was precisely Marquis Prius's job.
If even animal ears failed to satisfy them... well, I had no idea. The marquis would deal with it somehow.
Would anyone really do what a god has forbidden?
Once I settled on that thought, I felt considerably more at ease. What could possibly go wrong?
I spun the view away from the Holy City and toward the capital of the Holy Romanian Empire. No more descendants of the Forgotten remained in the Holy City, so I intended to dig a little deeper inside the empire itself.
True to its status as the imperial capital, the streets thronged with far more people than the Holy City. Every so often a descendant of the Forgotten still caught my eye.
Ping-pong—!
Ping-pong—!
Ping-pong—!
...
I scoured every corner of the empire, the Holy City, and even Montegros at the northern tip. Before long I had gathered a respectable number. Not a bad haul at all.
Ping-pong—!
Resident 'Selina' has arrived at the Holy Land!
While I was frantically hunting descendants I finally checked the backlog of alerts and found the message: the descendant of the Forgotten whom the marquis had located—Selina—had arrived in the Holy Land.
I had asked him to send just one over so I could get a proper look at what a beastkin from that world actually looked like. Somehow he had managed it on his own.
The very first resident to awaken her bloodline, and the marquis had been the first to find her. An amusing coincidence.
The man really was sharp when it came to getting things done—stirring up the public to hunt for descendants included.
"Animal ears! Animal ears! Animal ears! Animal ears!!"
The crowd's roar shook the very air. The marquis stroked his throat—now imbued with mysterious power—and cleared his voice.
Whether the Great One was watching over him or not, a wondrous force swelled his voice louder than thunder. Was this not a revelation commanding him to fulfill his mission?
Click. Click.
Ahead, destiny itself approached in the form of his appointed task.
Long black hair swayed like a night-sky curtain; eyes the deep green of dense forest fixed upon him. A heart that had forgotten the years began to pound violently. His face flushed an unbecoming red.
Thump.
Slowly he lifted his gaze higher...
Twitch—!
"Kh—!"
Perfectly triangular cat ears flicked. That lethal silhouette scattered coquettish charm and struck the marquis square in the heart!
Caught by the unexpected blow, he clutched his chest and staggered. Selina, who had been approaching, hurried forward in alarm and steadied him.
"Um... are you all right?"
"Kh, hah... heh. I am fine. Hah. Seeing them in person, they are far more beautiful than I anticipated."
"Eh?"
"Do not misunderstand. I am not speaking of that poorly mashed face of yours with its free-spirited features. I meant your ears. So do not take offense."
"Ah—yes..."
Selina's expression said she had expected nothing less. The marquis showed no sign of recognizing her—once merely one of his many business contacts—yet Selina knew him thoroughly.
His tastes, his temperament, his aesthetic sense...
To satisfy the marquis's lofty and refined eye, an ordinary beauty would never have been enough. That he had called her ears beautiful was, if anything, astonishing.
"Come to think of it, I have not even heard your name."
"Selina. Just Selina. I'm a commoner."
"I see. Miss Selina? Come this way."
The marquis extended one arm and escorted her. Where was he leading her? The only thing ahead was a door of absurd size.
"The Sixth God commanded that when the descendants of the Forgotten are found, the very first one is to be sent to Him. He did not specify the method, yet..."
The marquis stroked his elegantly groomed mustache.
"Just as every pilgrim does, you need only pass through this gate. Perfectly natural, is it not?"
"...Here?"
Selina tipped her head back until her neck ached, staring up at a door whose top she could not even see. Her eyes silently screamed at the marquis.
Open this firmly shut gate and go inside? Me? How?
Meeting her gaze, the marquis merely shrugged.
"Why not try opening it?"
"..."
She doubted a woman's strength could budge such a massive door, yet when a noble said jump, one jumped. Selina heaved a deep sigh and approached the Gate of the Holy Land.
The closer she drew, the more its majesty pressed against her skin—immense scale paired with carvings of exquisite delicacy.
The pillars on either side were sculpted with the forms of countless living things: the tiniest fleas, mice, and ants, all the way up to the sky-whales of ancient legend.
It was nothing less than a Book of Life, recording every creature that had ever existed from ages past to the present day.
Those are...
Yet here and there blank spaces remained—gaps left as though something had once been there and then vanished. As if entranced, Selina was drawn slowly toward the gate.
She raised her hand and laid it against the Gate of the Holy Land, like a guest announcing her presence to the master of the house.
Fwaaah—!
"Euk!"
Light burst from the spot her palm touched. The radiance swam sinuously up the gate, then, as if finding its rightful place, darted nimbly into one of the empty spaces.
One of the blank sections that had dotted the Gate of the Holy Land began to fill with bright light. Something was being carved.
Its form was... human. A human figure with animal ears atop its head and a tail at its waist.
"Wh-what on earth is that...?"
"I don't know. But it looks exactly as if something new is being written upon the Gate of the Holy Land."
The watching crowd stirred. Those empty spaces on the gate had never been mere blank canvas.
The marquis's eyes widened toward Selina; she, equally bewildered, stared down at her own hand.
Krrrrrr—!
Having inscribed the new form, the Gate of the Holy Land shifted its massive body and shook the earth. Even the slightest movement set the surrounding ground trembling before the vibration finally stilled.
Gulp—
Through the opened crack only pitch-black darkness was visible. Even Selina's keen eyes could not pierce it; a flicker of fear made her step back.
"Um, I really don't think I can go in there—"
Thump.
"Have a safe journey."
"Kyaaaaah—!"
Marquis Prius had slipped up behind her and given her retreating back a firm shove. Selina lost her balance, flailed, and tumbled into the darkness; only her pitiful scream escaped the void and circled in the air.
How long had she been lying there?
"Ow, that hurts..."
Selina sat up, nursing a splitting headache. That damn pervert marquis had shoved her, and she had tumbled all the way down. Carefully she felt her head; a sizable lump had already risen.
Wearing a tearful expression, she rubbed the bump and looked around.
"Where am I now..."
From far left to far right, no matter how hard she turned her head, all she saw was grass, grass, and more grass. An endless prairie stretched in every direction.
Ppi-ii!
A strange cry drifted on the wind—something like a chick's peeping. Selina's cat ears twitched and swiveled toward the sound.
Far off, smoke rose in lazy curls. The peculiar cry was coming from there.
"...Do I have to go that way?"
Everything was unfamiliar. Selina slowly set her feet in motion toward the source of the cry.
Ppi-ii! Pik, ppi-ik!
Splash, splash!
"Uwaaagh! You little—getting out is cheating!"
The closer she drew, the clearer the sounds became: water thrashing, a rough male voice.
Selina muffled her footsteps and crept forward. Past a great temple, a forge, and a noisy tavern she followed the peeping until she arrived at—
"A hot spring...?"
A steaming hot spring, white vapor rising like clouds.
A hot spring in the middle of a prairie? Selina tilted her head for a moment, then remembered this was the Holy Land and nodded. The place closest to miracles and transcendence—of course a spring could appear on the plains.
She peeked carefully over the edge. What she saw was...
Splash—!
"Ppi-hiii!! Ppi-ii!!"
"Uwaaagh! I-Iver, stop for a second!!"
A fierce battlefield.
Water flowed instead of blood; water-fights raged without a single inch of ground yielded. A winged lizard glowing with blue light warred against three short, muscle-packed men.
Amazingly, the tiny lizard was overwhelming them with its agile body.
"Kh! This isn't working! Big Brother, let's use that!!"
"All right, let's go!! Sedus, Tribius! Match me!!"
"Let's do it, Big Brothers!!"
Fwoooosh!
The three men exchanged signals, synchronized, and shoved the surface of the spring in unison. The water that had been sloshing back and forth began to rise higher and higher!
"Ghhhaaaah!!"
"Keep the rhythm!! Use the ripples!!"
Veins bulged on their biceps and triceps; the surface swelled until—
Shaaaaa—!!
—an unbelievable wave towered up!
A wave a little higher than Selina's eye level rose from the spring!
"Hahahaha! Take this, Iver! The three brothers' Sunlight Overdrive!!"
"We give our all in every fight! Even if the opponent is a baby!"
"Even you can't handle this, Iver! Give up!! Hwahahaha!!"
Fwoooosh!!
Certain of victory, the men laughed triumphantly.
The giant wave opened its maw to swallow the little lizard. That tiny, adorable creature looked ready to be swept away at any second!
Watching, Selina clapped a hand over her mouth without thinking.
Yet the little lizard remained utterly calm—as if to say, Useless—.
Hooo—
Standing still, the lizard drew a deep breath and exhaled toward the wave.
"Ppi-iiiiii—ik!!"
Crack— craaack!!
The wave that met the lizard's breath froze solid in midair as if by a lie. Ice raced up the towering water, then the whole mass collapsed with a crash.
A perfect counter.
The lizard flapped its tiny wings and shrugged its shoulders in triumph.
The match was over. The men sank to their knees in the battle-scarred spring.
"Kh. Even our secret ultimate technique wasn't enough."
"That... is straight-up cheating...!!"
"Ice breath is cheating, Iver! One more time—just one more!"
They clung to her pitifully.
It was exactly like uncles who had gone all-out playing with a niece and still been crushed. Selina couldn't help a little snicker.
"Heh heh."
"Ppi-ik?"
"Huh? Who's there?"
"A guest? We've been getting a lot of visitors lately."
The lizard and the men all turned toward Selina's hiding place.
"Ah."
Caught.
Hesitantly, Selina stepped into view. Three short men and one cute lizard—four pairs of eyes fixed on her.
"A guest?"
"...What's with those ears on your head?"
"They're my ears..."
"Strange. The guests who came before didn't have ears like that, did they?"
"Ppi-i, pik?"
They stared so intently at her cat ears that a wave of embarrassment made Selina hang her head.
"Th-the God called for me! Where is the God right now?!"
"Ah, the Great One? He's not here at the moment, but if you wait a bit He'll probably come back."
"Leaving a guest standing outside isn't polite, so come warm yourself by the fire until then."
"Ppi-ik— pik, ppi-iik."
The short men busily worked their stubby legs and took the lead; the small blue-glowing lizard toddled along beside them on its hind feet.
A peculiar procession.
Selina stared blankly for a moment, then began to follow their march.