Medellin
There was a way to remove Marcella's threat of assassination and force the endgame sooner. First, I had to infiltrate their stronghold.
And by stronghold, of course, I meant Medellin—the city of the World Tree.
Elves lived beyond Medellin as well, though only in settlements no larger than small villages. The capital itself, they said, enjoyed excellent conditions by the World Tree's grace: good soil, and drinking water in abundance.
I would have to go in sooner or later.
And now they've gone and handed me the pretext themselves.
I watched Elder Escenia, still ranting, then nodded as if I had been reluctantly won over.
"I hadn't thought that far myself. Sending an envoy every time you want to buy a little heroin is certainly a troublesome business."
"So long as you understand now, human."
"In the end, you want a distribution network opened in the Great Forest. For the sake of peace, I'm willing to accept that. It will take a thorough discussion, though... What if I came to Medellin myself and spoke with the Grand Elder?"
At that, displeasure crossed the elder's face.
It was strange that they should hesitate after already permitting entry into the Great Forest, but I understood. However much they loved heroin, they still wanted to keep a human from setting foot right beneath the World Tree. They had hated us loitering on the outskirts badly enough. How much worse would the heart of the city be?
Unfortunately for them, I was dealing with junkies.
"It is essential for the smooth distribution of heroin, Elder Escenia."
"......"
"Think it through. I need results I can report to the imperial court, don't I? Meeting the Grand Elder in Medellin would make a fine achievement. If my standing improves, that does you no harm either."
"Even so, how could we allow a human..."
"I'm not asking you to permit it for free."
"......?"
I signaled Bono to bring that.
It was one of the things we had brought along with the smoking pipes. Nothing special—just a little tube about the length of a pinky. Metal, and at a glance no more than a tiny straw.
Elder Escenia tilted her head, puzzled, as if to ask why I was showing her this shabby trinket instead of simply handing over the heroin.
"There is a more comfortable, cleaner way to enjoy heroin."
"With... that?"
"For convenience, nothing beats dissolving it in tea or wine. But as you know, that dulls the effect somewhat. Use this, and you keep the full potency while the aftermath stays tidy. Aren't you curious?"
What I had in mind, of course, was nasal insufflation. A sniff up the nose.
For the moment, there was no easier or harder-hitting method. Rolling it in paper and inhaling would do, but a metal tube looked better, and it was easier to keep.
"Permit me to visit Medellin at the head of a retinue, and I'll show you. I'll provide the implements to every elder as well."
"A retinue?"
"I have to consider my safety. Even if I wanted to go to Medellin alone, my superiors would never allow it."
The wrangling went on for a while after that, but it ended quickly.
I had let slip, once again, the hint that sales might stop—"As it happens, the date of my return to the Imperial Capital is drawing near." To people already addicted, nothing was more frightening than the prospect of me vanishing without ever laying down a network.
"Very well. When shall we invite you?"
"Right now."
Marcella might strike tonight. There was no reason to delay.
I began assembling the retinue at once.
I was walking into the enemy's heart before the elves as a whole had been contaminated; I needed to come properly equipped. I called up a large number of the Experts stationed in the frontier city, Bono among them.
Twenty of them. Twenty-one, counting me.
Most had actually fought elves.
"The Grand Elder has granted permission. Human."
But a gate, once opened, did not simply swing shut again.
I reached Medellin by way of the elves' own teleportation circle.
The first thing to catch my eye was the sickeningly enormous tree at the exact center of the city.
The World Tree.
Its girth alone had to be eighty meters at the least. In appearance it was nothing more than an evergreen broadleaf, and I doubted there was any point in fussing over the species. Its size alone reduced every building in the city to something shabby.
And there was a sight that seized me nearly as hard as the World Tree.
"All of those... kids?"
"Watch your tongue, human. Kids?"
Elves lay scattered across the plaza before the World Tree.
This was no crowd mustered to welcome me.
They were simply huddled together where they sat. Quite a few had collapsed outright. What they shared was the glazed look on most of their faces.
Has it really come to this in a single month?
The scene called to mind Kensington Avenue in America, or Cracolândia in Brazil.
The difference was that the bodies strewn about were not zombie-like vagrants, but beautiful elves. And instead of used needles rolling underfoot, they were all puffing smoke with a certain elegance.
Because it wasn't ugly, it was all the more uncanny.
I could already feel it. Heroin had settled into elven society as... how should I put it. A kind of cultural rite.
"Why is a human in this place...?"
A few elves who were still relatively intact jabbed fingers at our party.
Tension flooded the loosely gathered plaza in an instant, but there was no disturbance. Elder Escenia, who had guided us this far, pointed at me and offered a single line.
"This human is heroin."
"Heroin?"
"Heroin. The Heroin Apothecary."
"Oh...!"
At the single word heroin, the tension evaporated in real time.
The elf who had been pointing at me faltered, then shyly extended one more finger. He must have decided that pointing with a single finger was rude.
"Having beheld the World Tree with your own eyes... what are your impressions? Are they favorable?"
And then a question as strange as that.
He could have simply lowered his arm. Why keep marking me with both index and middle finger? Proof enough that they had already gone as far as they could go. The elves had not ushered me into their heart for nothing.
"Move, human. You are about to be granted an audience with the Grand Elder."
"All right."
"Know this: we are extending an exceptional courtesy, for the sake of your standing."
An exceptional courtesy it was. I was entering an enemy capital with troops at my back, and they had even provided the means of travel.
I was led at once to the Grand Elder's office.
Several elves sat with the Grand Elder—whether they wished to muster dignity before me, or simply because they distrusted humans.
None of them compared to Marcella, but every one could be classed as a strong fighter.
I felt no pressure.
Every one of them is using.
Every elder's eyes were slack. So were some of the warriors I took to have been posted for ceremony and guard.
I intended to receive Marcella with these people beside me.
Paradoxically, this was the safest place I could be.
Heroin. It cannot be.
Marcella, the former Grand Warrior, was tearing across the Great Forest like a madwoman.
Whatever brush blocked her path, she cleared it with a blade sheathed in aura and sprinted the shortest route—furiously.
Her destination was Medellin, the city she herself had escaped not long ago.
On any ordinary day it would have been unthinkable. Damaging the vegetation merely to move faster was not a thing that suited her.
She had no room to care about that now. All that ruled Marcella was a single fixation: she had to reach Medellin as fast as possible.
Faster. I have to get there faster.
It had been three days since she visited the frontier city of Antrim to take that bastard Allan's head.
Marcella was no fool. She had used a ploy to get close to Allan Madoff.
She told Antrim's sentries that she had come to buy heroin.
She knew that Allan Madoff personally oversaw the sale of the drug. If her luck held, she had thought, she could achieve her aim and escape without a major fight.
She never even met him. All she got from a sentry was a shock.
"A-ah, Sir Allan has already left. For your capital."
Allan was already gone—and his destination was Medellin.
She could not believe it.
It isn't true. It can't be. It isn't.
She repeated it even as she ran herself half to death, and she had only one reason.
Too many insane things had already happened.
Every wicked, harmful, wretched thing she had encountered in a little over a hundred and ninety years of life could not compare to the shock of the past month.
Nothing said something even madder could not happen next. That was why she had to get back to Medellin quickly.
What if Allan Madoff really was in Medellin?
Even so, I have to kill him.
Kill him the moment she saw him, and think about what came after later.
The panorama of Medellin came into view the instant she made that decision.
Marcella adjusted her grip on the hilt and halted her sprint.
Veteran elves serving as Guardians controlled passage in and out. She could have slipped past them, but she did not have the time.
First I have to confirm whether that human is truly in Medellin.
If he had already infiltrated?
She would have to force her way in, even if it meant fighting her own kind.
The thought filled her with self-loathing, but she had no choice. Marcella let her sword hang and approached the Guardians first.
"Has Allan Madoff visited?"
"Yes."
So he had come. Marcella squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again.
"Stand aside. It is true that I defied the elders, but I don't even have time to explain. If you block me, I will break through by force."
Marcella showed her resolve, but the other only shook his head, awkward and uncertain.
"Th-there's no need for that."
"What."
"The Elder Council is discussing your pardon, Lady Marcella. At the request of the human... the imperial consul called Allan."
...A pardon? At that human's request?
Marcella could only blink, unable to grasp what she had just heard.
"Please, go in."
The Guardian urged her on, but Marcella could hardly lift her feet.
She could not begin to guess what was happening in Medellin. It was the home she had lived in all her life, and yet it felt strangely foreign.