Vortex (4)
When I was young, I once ran away from home for a short while. Strictly speaking, it wasn't running away so much as going out, but regardless of my intentions, the fact remained that the orphanage had been thrown into chaos because I hadn't returned for several days.
Why had I done such a thing? The answer was simple. I had become fascinated by the stories of the hermits of Jirisan that I'd seen on TV and gone looking for them. In hindsight, I should have at least left a note before leaving, but at the time, I hadn't been able to. Desire had blinded me so completely.
The number of desires was equal to the number of people. After all, desire was shaped by a person's personality, life, and environment. Each one was inevitably unique.
People moved according to their desires. They acted to fulfill them. In other words, desire was both the driving force and the goal. If you wanted to understand that clearly, all you had to do was look at the Paltran Marquisate. It was truly a vortex where all kinds of desires swirled together.
"Barzet seems quite well-known."
The man who had made the proposal to me, Barzet, was someone who had made a name for himself in the mercenary world. Unusually for a mercenary, he had formed a mage-centered mercenary group, which meant he was frequently hired during various conflicts. Such convenient mage forces were by no means common. Their high price was a drawback, but since they were mercenaries, they would move as long as you paid them.
Other mage groups? They demanded more than just money. While their skills were certainly superior, from the perspective of those in power, Barzet was the easier blade to wield.
I narrowed my eyes. Barzet's investigation was complete, yet there were still many things that felt suspicious. The most suspicious of all was his ability. Even with the Magic Tower, the Beastman Kingdom, and the imperial mages all working together, the barrier still hadn't been broken. So how could a group of mercenary mages claim they could do it?
Of course, it wasn't impossible for mercenary mages to be skilled, but something about it felt off. It bothered me.
While I was digging into Barzet from every angle, Jerry muttered,
"Barzet, huh."
"Do you know him?"
At my question, Jerry nodded and continued.
"Our areas of activity overlapped, so I know a bit about him."
"What kind of person is he?"
"He had a good reputation. He was famous for taking good care of the mages under him."
"Is that so?"
"His skills are excellent too. A fully matured 4th-circle mage is always a welcome asset wherever they go."
"No wonder he seemed so confident."
"However..."
Jerry paused briefly before speaking again, slowly.
"There are some strange rumors about him as well."
"Those tend to follow anyone who gets a little famous."
Even I had bizarre rumors following me about ripping out people's hearts to steal their magic. Rumors were just rumors. There was no guarantee they were true.
"That's true, but rumors don't appear out of nowhere either, do they?"
"Why are you looking at me while saying that? Are you implying I'm the kind of person who'd have rumors about ripping out hearts to steal magic?"
"Lady Ruina. You have to admit that part."
"I'll admit it."
It was unfair, but what could I do? If the majority thought that way, I'd just have to go along with it.
Jerry cleared his throat and explained.
"It's only a rumor, but they say that mages under Barzet occasionally disappear."
"Disappear?"
"Yes."
It was certainly an odd rumor. Disappear? If it were frequent resignations or a high mortality rate, I could understand, but disappear?
"Is it slander?"
"I'm only going by what I've heard, so I'm not certain, but the rumor is that mages who were active as core members of the group would suddenly stop showing up."
"They might have just left the group."
"Barzet's mercenary group may be a mercenary organization, but it doesn't accept just anyone. At the very least, they had to prove their skills, and mages like that would naturally continue to be active even after leaving. However, the mages who belonged to Barzet's group supposedly had no news at all after leaving."
"Interesting."
If that rumor was true, there were only two possible reasons for such a phenomenon. Either Barzet had sent his mages somewhere completely cut off from the world, or he had killed and buried them. If it was the former, the question was where he sent them. If it was the latter, the question was why he would do such a thing. But of course, there was no guarantee the rumor was true. It might not be.
"This is difficult."
"We need to make a decision soon."
Barzet had only given us a single day. Once that day passed, no matter how much we wanted to work with him, we wouldn't be able to. We had to decide quickly.
Originally, I would have preferred not to move with others, but my thoughts had changed after talking with Barzet. Even a mercenary like him had found a way to break through the barrier. It probably wasn't much different for other groups. If we tried to break through Toltpier's barrier on our own, we might not even make it into the dungeon.
I thought about the groups currently gathered in the Paltran Marquisate.
The Red Tower. Their goal was "to see the end of magic," which was why they often got involved in all sorts of incidents. Their basic stance was that by poking around here and there, they might accidentally obtain clues toward "seeing the end of magic," which was why the Red Tower was also famous for collecting magic. They collected every type of magic without discrimination, and because their methods weren't always gentle, they had quite a few enemies as well.
Next was the Beastman Kingdom. To explain the ones dispatched from the Beastman Kingdom, I first needed to explain the kingdom's structure. The Beastman Kingdom was formed by the union of multiple tribes. Therefore, those who led them were a council of elders made up of representatives from each tribe, and the fact that they elected a separate representative for that council made it quite different from a typical monarchy. So the ones currently dispatched from the Beastman Kingdom weren't technically dispatched by the Beastman Kingdom itself. Each tribe had sent people as they pleased.
Among the various beastmen who had been sent, the two largest factions were the cat beastmen and the crow beastmen. Both were notoriously greedy even among the beastmen. Cat beastmen had a tendency to never yield what was theirs, while crow beastmen had a tendency to take what they wanted, even if it belonged to someone else. The crow beastmen stealing the signature magic of the Nemerion School was a very famous incident. I needed to be careful.
Next was the imperial family. They didn't require much explanation. They were mages directly recruited by the imperial family, the pinnacle of the empire. Their pride and skill went without saying.
Besides them, various schools, various mercenaries, and various riffraff had gathered in the Paltran Marquisate. But there was one problem here.
None of the groups I had just listed welcomed me. They didn't welcome me? Actually, that was the wrong way to put it. If you heard that, it would sound like they were rejecting me. So rather than that, yes. They weren't even interested. That was more accurate.
In that situation, suddenly showing up and asking to join wouldn't lead to good results. In other words, I had no options to begin with. Working alone had a high chance of falling behind in dungeon exploration, and there was only one place that would accept us if we tried to join somewhere.
Having fewer options made it easier to think.
"Will we work with Barzet, or won't we? Choose."
At my words, everyone in the group fell into thought. I glanced at Leon. Currently, Leon had his mouth firmly shut. The reason was simple. While we were here to find the Holy Grail and explore the dungeon on the side, Leon only wanted the Holy Grail. Since we had essentially come here because of Leon in the first place, he was leaving the decision entirely to us.
After some time passed, Jerry spoke first.
"Barzet's strange rumors are unsettling, but rumors are just rumors. Many people have cooperated with him until now, so I think it'll be fine."
Others spoke up one after another.
"I agree."
"...I don't think it'll be a problem either."
"I'll follow Master's opinion."
Chris, Muran, and Noa respectively. Now the only ones left were Risel, Leon, and Ferant. At my gaze, Risel nodded. It meant he was fine with it.
Ferant, what about you?
"I don't mind either way!"
"What about you, Leon?"
"...I'll follow everyone's opinion."
It was decided. I stood up from my seat.
"Let's go to Barzet. I'm curious what method he has for breaking through the Archmage's barrier."
Barzet was staying at an inn not far away.
Creak. I opened the door and stepped into the inn. Then—
Numerous gazes turned toward me. People wearing red robes, people with crow wings, people with cat ears all stared at me, and I blinked. Was this some kind of meeting plaza? Why were there so many?
That was when Barzet, who had been sitting in a corner of the inn, stood up and approached me. Barzet asked,
"Have you decided?"
"It seemed a bit too big for us to handle alone."
At my brief answer, Barzet smiled and extended his hand.
"Welcome to working together, Ruina."
*
Inside the crowded inn, someone was thinking. How should they cook up that ignorant fool who didn't know the value of the treasure called Balance? They kept thinking about it, endlessly.