Told You I'd Come
"Wh-what the… what's going on all of a sudden…?"
Karl and En clung to each other, trembling uncontrollably.
It was killing intent unlike anything they had ever felt in their lives. The sheer pressure of it—the sense that they were about to be torn limb from limb—made them curl into themselves as small as they could get.
The flames pressing down on them were on an entirely different level from the simple fire they had always known.
"I'll kill you… I'll kill you…"
"Akron."
"Kill… kgh!"
The deeper the killing intent grew, the harder the covenant's restraint bit down. Left alone like this, the divine flame would burn through his heart and consume him alive.
I can't just leave him like that.
I activated my divinity—not for suppression, but for restoration.
A pure white light spread out from Akron's heart, winding its way through his entire body. As it healed, I extended the divinity from the cellular level all the way to the farthest reaches of his soul, searching for anything foreign.
Well, well. There it is.
"How rude of you, planting something like this."
Psshah—!
I obliterated the hidden blue flame nestled inside Akron.
It put up some resistance, but that was all it amounted to. A power hidden away just to avoid detection could hardly do more.
"Are you all right?"
"…Leave me alone for a moment."
"Just a sec—"
Before I could even reach out, Akron's body dissolved into flame and vanished.
I let out a long sigh and looked down at the two still quivering in each other's arms.
So what am I supposed to do with these two?
"Let's have a little talk, shall we?"
After forcibly calming the two of them down—still shaking long afterward—I heard the whole story.
Karl and En had always come here to play, they said. This wasn't where the Venetus lived, and precisely because no one actually lived here, it was the perfect place to play to their hearts' content without anyone bothering them. And more than anything, there was something special here.
"It's red, see… You can hardly ever find red anywhere."
A red flower growing before the grave. Whether the children ran wild around it, or whether rowdy orchids threatened its place, it held its ground without fail.
Apart from the very peak of the volcanic island and tiny fragments of Blue-Red Stone, red was nearly impossible to find here. And this flower was a perfect, unbroken red.
"Did you know this place is a grave?"
"A g-grave?! That peak is a grave?!"
Karl shot up from where he sat, finally startled out of his wits.
Had they really never realized someone was resting right beneath the ground where they played?
"Yes. You didn't know?"
"…We didn't. We just played here because it was pretty."
"Yeah. None of the grown-ups ever told us anything."
"What about the Chieftain?"
"The Chieftain? He never said a word about it."
"……"
Even if they'd been small children at the time, surely they shouldn't have been ignorant of what this place meant… Perhaps their young minds hadn't grasped it back then—but a full seventeen hundred years had passed since that day. As the only living soul who still remembered the past well enough to know the location of the seal, the Chieftain must have visited this grave more than once.
I glanced at the flower for a moment. It stood there exactly as before. But the ground around it had been disturbed, more than a little.
Not once, then. He's been here many times.
"I suppose I should go collect my reward."
Now I had a question to ask.
"I've paid up."
"Sorry… what?"
That was the first thing out of the Chieftain's mouth the moment I returned to the village. And as soon as he finished speaking, the experience points came flooding in.
My level rose to 101.
Considering that past level 100, the experience required climbs into the tens of billions, that was a substantial gain. After all, she hadn't killed anyone—she'd merely confirmed a seal.
"The fragments of the primordial age—the Blue-Red Stone you spoke of. I paid you far more than what Umpura quoted, so this should be more than sufficient."
Umpura, one of the Four Divine Generals. The man who'd gone red in the face insisting that four hundred pieces for me was absurd. He'd told me never to mention it to anyone—and then ended up spilling it himself, apparently.
"Everything's already loaded onto your ship. You may depart whenever you wish."
"…You're not going to ask?"
He had sent me to verify the seal, and now that I'd verified it, he wouldn't even hear my report before sending me on my way.
Karuns simply nodded, utterly unperturbed.
"I already saw. From the moment you opened the door at the lowest level of the sealing ground, I knew exactly what state things were in."
"Then you also know that his seal has been broken?"
"I do."
"Akron waking from his seal is a threat, true… but you did not rebind him. He will pose no danger to us."
"My contract is not indefinite. Grant me the three things I desire, and the shackles upon him will vanish."
The only reason Akron couldn't go on a rampage was the covenant, pure and simple. I wasn't going to stay here forever, and once the contract dissolved, he would have no further reason to spare anyone's life.
In the end, he would be free.
Karuns gave a dry chuckle and shook his head.
"Will it, now? You would truly let him loose to slaughter every innocent soul in his path?"
"I am not a charity worker. Deaths that fall beyond the reach of my hand are none of my concern."
There was a time I would have said otherwise. Not anymore. The moment I threw away the mantle of the Saint, I forsook nobility. Saving everyone was a dream—nothing more than an illusion.
"Then you would not have asked for three wishes."
Why stretch it to three when I hardly wanted that many things? Why, when Akron first made his offer, had I deliberately stopped the killing blow?
"You mean to keep him bound, don't you. To keep the death you hold in your eyes from coming to pass."
"……"
"As long as you are here, this place is safe."
"Is that so?"
"It is."
"I see."
So that's how it was.
"Understood. Then I'll be going."
"A wise decision. Should you need anything more, I shall provide it."
"No need. I've already received more than enough."
"Lily?"
Redberry's puzzled voice followed me, but I turned away without a second thought.
Once we had left the Chieftain's dwelling and passed beyond the village's bounds, Redberry, who had been trailing after me, finally spoke up, flustered.
"Didn't you have something you wanted to ask him? You were going to press him about something…"
"I did. Then I didn't."
After everything he'd just pulled, expecting a straight answer out of him would've been a joke. And I couldn't exactly force the answer out of a fan, could I?
"Half to death? Aww, come on—I'm not that bad a person."
I'd already gotten everything there was to get, and as for Akron, I could always call on him later. I had come here to trade, and with that purpose fulfilled, I had no more business on this island.
"Let's go. Back to the Republic."
Standing on the shoreline, Umpura scowled as he stared out past the horizon. A merchant vessel carrying that bizarre woman was pulling away from the island.
A blue-haired woman who had appeared out of nowhere and turned the entire island upside down.
She was not the first outsider to seek out the Primordial Island. For some time now, strangers had been arriving one by one from across the sea.
He had harbored a certain expectation, but those who came were all trivial creatures. Weak beyond belief—most of them couldn't even match children like Karl or En.
The only one who was somewhat different… yes. That woman, Birang.
Birang Brenis, a woman who had come from a kingdom called "Imperium." She wielded devilish swordsmanship, and in terms of raw level, she had been on par with the blue-haired woman. She had toured the island once, then declared, "There are too many risk factors here. I will defer," and returned to her own kingdom.
But the blue-haired woman had been different.
"I can't believe he actually let her take that much. What is the Chieftain thinking…"
She had stormed in wielding strength rivaling Birang's—no, perhaps even greater—settled matters with the Chieftain directly, and walked off with the primordial fragments.
Five hundred of them. Each one the size of a face!
"No matter how plentiful the fragments are, handing them to an outsider like this…"
"Hahk… Hey! Umpura!"
"…What is it, you lot?"
Umpura turned toward the source of the shouting. The other Divine Generals—all except himself. The four guardians of the blue tribe.
According to the Chieftain, theirs was a position that had existed since the dawn of the age; once, they had received power directly from the Primordial God to protect their people. Of course, these days it was an honorary title stripped of any such authority.
The Primordial God… what a distant thing that is.
The Primordial God had bestowed blessings upon all, yet no one had ever confirmed what it truly was. Even Umpura, who had lived some three hundred years, had never caught so much as the first syllable of it.
If anyone had, it would be Karuns, the Chieftain, and him alone.
"What are you sprinting over here for? You've got nothing better to do?"
"What nonsense are you spouting?! Can't you see that?!"
"You blind fool, Umpura!"
"See what, exactly…?"
Thrown off by the sudden commotion, Umpura followed the pointing fingers of the Divine Generals with his eyes.
And then he froze.
The Primordial Starting Point. No—the entire volcanic island was erupting.
More precisely, red was pouring out of it.
On a scale vast enough to erase nearly every trace of blue from the island. At the sight of what looked like the unleashing of a calamity itself, Umpura's jaw hung open.
"What in the…"
"This is a crisis! Get to the Starting Point, now!"
"The Chieftain has already rushed out there!!!"
The red calamity was spreading.
"…Did you not say you were returning to your kingdom?"
At the very peak of the volcanic island, I tilted my head at Akron's question as I heaped up the countless Blue-Red Stones Karuns had given me.
WHOOSH!
"Told you I'd come."
"What?"
SPLASH!
"Elbrit 1st Branch."