Everything According to the Natural Order (5)
“It seems they die if they consume Holy Power.”
After staying up through the night, we had managed to snatch only a few hours of sleep. When we woke, the Archmage delivered that piece of news.
The beast in question was the same type as the Jahukaya of the Great Forest—different species, yet identical in that it fed on mana without needing Demon Energy. It could devour Holy Power as well, but the price was death. That was the heart of his report.
“The Jahukaya population is so sparse, and transporting them to the Magic Tower takes time, so they only began the experiment two days ago… and every single one they fed Holy Power died, just like that.”
Creatures already few in number, wiped out by the test. I offered a silent prayer for the mages who must have screamed themselves hoarse. Their sacrifice had proven this was no new enemy, and that it could not nullify Holy Power. Small mercies.
“But that isn’t the real issue. What truly matters is…”
“Where these things are being born, right?”
“Exactly.”
“Then investigating the direction the animals are coming from… isn’t possible. You said they pour in from every side.”
In the meantime, Dev and the Inquisitor traded opinions with the Archmage in turn. Berserk? She was present, but dozing off with her chin bobbing.
“Grrraaah…”
“…We should have let Berserk sleep longer.”
“Shall I take her to her room?”
No—she had simply sprawled out and collapsed. From the moment conversation started she had worn a look that said this is hard, I don’t get it, and finally she had given up entirely.
Bang!
“Grr—huh?”
“……?”
“Who…?”
Then the door to the dining hall where we sat flew open. Someone had kicked it wide as if they owned the place.
“What? I heard you were lodging here?”
The approaching presence had been so swift I’d thought fresh news was coming, but his attitude made it clear that wasn’t the case.
And who the hell was this guy, kicking open the door of our lodgings? Judging by his clothes he wasn’t from the temple.
This city had no Magic Tower branch, and he didn’t look like a mage either, so he wasn’t one of theirs.
“You are…”
“Please, just a moment—I asked you to wait!”
“Young master!!”
We had barely a second to gape before the Archmage could finish speaking. New figures burst in: several priests and people dressed like staff—servants, given the setting.
“Hey.”
They seized the first intruder from both sides as if to drag him away. Some even tried to shut the open door.
But the one who overcame all of that simply fixed us with a crooked glare.
“I heard the Hero was here. That you lot?”
Knowing about us was one thing; the personality that matched his rich clothing was something else entirely.
“Young master!!”
“Our deepest apologies. We will resolve this at once, so if the Proxy would kindly overlook it with a generous heart…”
“Get out of my way. I’m asking you! Are you the Hero or not!”
I stared at the young man who, even without jumping in place, was clearly some rich house’s son.
My roleplay persona’s temperament was already worse than his, so I had no intention of lecturing him…
“Are you mutes? Not answering?”
“Young master!!”
“That is enough! Even if you are the lord’s son, I will not endure further!”
Him? With what guts? Mouthing off in front of two giants nearly two meters tall (Berserk and the Archmage)?
I didn’t have a measuring stick, but I myself was around one-ninety.
Real backbone. If I’d been in his shoes I would have frozen, said “Wrong door,” bowed ninety degrees, and bolted.
“Berserk finds this amazing! Can a person really get that round?”
“Pfft.”
“Indeed. I find it curious as well.”
“Inquisitor…”
Meanwhile the utterly tactless Berserk blurted out the truth, and the pure-hearted Inquisitor agreed.
I had no intention of mocking obesity, so I kept quiet. One of my friends had ballooned from stress-eating once… yeah. I could worry, but I didn’t want to tease. He’d suffered enough then.
“Wh-what? You stupid musclehead…!”
“Please leave, young master!”
“We’re so sorry, so sorry.”
“That will do. Kindly depart.”
Separately, the kid would probably do well at judo or wrestling. Most people that heavy struggled just to put force into their bodies, yet his raw endurance was ridiculous.
“Let go! I’ll walk on my own! Damn it, I came all this way for nothing.”
Of course, he’d have to fix his personality first.
“If I’d known it was just some green little girl, a pale beast-spawn, and a filthy half-beast, Hero or not…”
“Young master!!”
What did he just say? Green little girl? Pale beast-spawn? Filthy half-beast? Was he joking??
“…Have you just insulted the Proxy of the gods and Her companions?”
“And if I have, what’re you gonna do about it?”
“Young master, please…!”
Even to my ears it was a vicious insult. How much worse must it sound to those steeped in this world’s ways?
The temple personnel who had been trying—probably—to handle the lord’s son as gently as possible flushed red and purple.
“How dare you speak of the Archmage like that…!”
“Oh… half-beast. It’s been a while since I heard that slur…”
“Hmph.”
Our party reacted the same way.
The Inquisitor, normally gentle unless demons were involved, went rigid. The two who had been called beasts wore chilled expressions.
“Can I kill him?”
Even Berserk, who had been yawning in boredom, joined in. She hadn’t changed color so much as sharpened her words.
“What did that musclehead just—”
“Insulting the Proxy of the gods is no different from insulting the gods themselves. We will no longer treat him with courtesy. Drag him away!”
“W-wait a moment!”
“Wh-what’s this! You bastards!”
Fortunate or unfortunate—
Before the party could make an example of him, the temple moved first. With a roar they began applying real force.
“Let—let go of me! I’m the next lord of this— a-agh! Let go!!”
“Hah. Not content with blaspheming the gods, you call yourself the next lord when a rightful heir already exists? I will report the crime of treason to the lord as well!”
“I-I’m finished…”
In other words, they had abandoned any attempt at restraint. They were even drawing on Holy Power.
Having watched the Inquisitor use hers, I knew full well: that meant one hundred percent bruising. In the worst case, broken bones.
“Let—let go!”
“Take him! Throw him in a cell!”
In any case, the servants desperately trying to stop them on the side looked pitiful. Stuck in the middle, they could only hop from foot to foot.
“Do not intervene. Berserk, put down the halberd as well.”
“But! The one who insulted the Archmage—”
“Can I really not kill him?”
“If you were angry over your own insult I might understand, but there is no need on my account, Inquisitor. You neither, Berserk. The man is already being arrested; there is no reason to turn ourselves into criminals by killing him.”
While the offender was hauled away, the Archmage pressed his temples with a sigh.
“Our deepest apologies. This was our failure…”
One remaining priest bowed as if ready to drive his forehead into the floor, both to clear the situation and to apologize.
The insult itself was not their crime; they were apologizing for failing to stop him from the outset.
“It is fine. How could you have stopped the lord’s son from barging in?”
“No, it is truly our failure. Knowing the sort of person he is, we should have been more careful…”
“I said the apology is enough. More importantly, are you all right? You were insulted as well, yet I handled it on my own authority…”
“Eh? Ah. I’m used to it, so I’m fine. And he wasn’t just brushed off—he got properly arrested. If anything, are you all right, mage-sir?”
“…I am fine as well. In my youth there were far more bigots.”
“Oh…”
“They’re all idiots. Race or not, snap a neck and they all die the same.”
At those two remarks a pointless surge of indignation rose in me. I almost reflexively argued with Berserk’s comment.
Honestly, she wasn’t wrong. Snap a neck and race stops mattering; most living things die.
“Do not grow accustomed to insults. You too, you bastard. No one should be despised for what they were born as, nor grow used to it.”
“…You brushed off being called a green little girl without batting an eye, and now you say that?”
“I am young, and I am a woman—what is there to brush off?”
She hadn’t even registered the insult as an insult… Funny, or perhaps this was the real victory.
“…If you don’t get it, never mind. But if no one should be despised, then what about the time you treated me like a criminal?”
“That was…! I… I may have judged too hastily, but…! Still, being treated like a thief because you act like a thief is completely different from being called a half-beast just for being born Cueoty!”
People this oblivious might actually have an easier time living.
While I thought that, the Inquisitor snapped.
“Honestly. Are you defending me or insulting me? In the end you still thought of me as a thief.”
Dev muttered a few words under a hollow breath. It didn’t sound like simple grumbling from disbelief. He didn’t look offended.
The Archmage smiled with quiet satisfaction.
“Ah, right. Hey, priest. We heard he’s the lord’s son, but why did he come here?”
Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Dev steered the topic back. It was something I had wondered about too.
Why had the kid come looking for us in the first place?
“W-well… I don’t know for certain either…”
The priest looked flustered by Dev’s question.
Yet he didn’t feign total ignorance to the end. Even though the apology had been accepted, the guilt seemed to linger all the more.
He was visibly straining every nerve to produce an answer.
“Most likely… he came to urge the subjugation of the beasts. Because of the sudden surge in predators, the young lady’s wedding has been postponed.”
The answer was more unexpected than I’d thought.
The way he distinguished between the young lady and the second son suggested the young lady was the eldest.
Even a scoundrel cherishes family? Strange. Earlier he’d claimed he was the one who would become the next lord.
“I can see why he’d push us—we have the Hero, so asking for help makes sense. But what’s a wedding got to do with anything?”
“That… haah. The young lady’s marriage partner is the young lord of Ednium.”
“What?”
“…A marriage between two heirs. Unusual. Even political marriages rarely join heirs directly.”
“Ah, it isn’t a political marriage. It’s a love match.”
“Oh, a love match.”
“And?”
“…He seems to believe that once the young lady marries, she will renounce her claim as heir and leave for that city.”
Only then did I understand. It was an extremely optimistic reading of the situation, but not entirely impossible.
“Is he an idiot?”
“Foolish. To behave like that and still believe he can become lord.”
“I don’t see what marriage has to do with renouncing the succession.”
“Quite the… remarkable judgment.”
Still, to not even consider the possibility that the other side might come here?
“…It isn’t solely because of the wedding. While the lord and the young lady are distant, the second son enjoys the lord’s favor.”
“That guy??”
Dev’s spinal reflex kicked in. The priest, however, took no offense and simply nodded in agreement.
“We find it puzzling as well. The young lady takes after her mother and is truly wise and discerning, yet the lord… ah, forgive me. As a servant of the gods I must not speak ill.”
“It’s fine. The gods will forgive you.”
Honestly, this barely even counted as speaking ill. Spreading other people’s family affairs was bad, of course… but this much? It felt more like a warning.
“Honestly. Humans.”
“At least he’ll receive proper punishment this time. An insult of this magnitude will send him to a monastery, so even if the young lady leaves for another city, he won’t be elevated as lord.”
While I pondered, the Inquisitor chattered with visible relief. Beneath her voice simmered a fierce determination never to see that man become lord.
The priest’s expression turned complicated.
“He likely will not go to a monastery.”
“What?”
“He is the son the lord dotes on. They will smooth it over somehow.”
“…This is a crime committed within the temple, insulting my companions and no one else. And they would smooth it over?”
“…Given past records, either the lord or the young lady will come to the temple in person, kneel in apology, and donate a sum in the millions. With that money thousands can be helped, so until now we have looked the other way… but this time we will follow the Hero’s opinion completely. Yes.”
The Inquisitor’s and Dev’s faces crumpled in unison. Softly, almost as background music, came Berserk’s murmur: “Killing him really would have been better.”
“I am sorry.”
Unfortunately, the priest’s prediction proved exactly right.
In less than an hour the young lady arrived, bearing an enormous sum of money.
“It is my fault for failing to look after my younger brother properly. I beg your generous mercy.”
She even dropped to her knees without preamble. There was not a hint of hesitation, even though the fault was not hers.
Perhaps it was less that she took her brother’s wrongs as her own, and more that she was simply too accustomed to this act.
“…Please rise.”
At the Inquisitor’s words the young lady stood with elegant grace. Her black hair swayed so smoothly it might have been silk.
“We never asked for this sort of apology.”
“…I am sorry.”
“An apology from the young lady, who has nothing to do with this matter, is even less welcome.”
At Kimchi Dumpling’s words the young lady squeezed her eyes shut. Petal-like irises vanished behind her lids.
“I want an apology from the one who insulted my companions, and a fitting punishment.”
At the Inquisitor’s demand the young lady opened her eyes again. For a moment a look that said this has become troublesome flickered in her gaze, then sank away.
“…If I may be so bold as to request it, Proxy of the gods. For the sake of my dignity, would you not accept my apology?”
“How does my accepting your apology raise your dignity?”
There it was. The Inquisitor’s habit of taking every roundabout phrase at face value and hurling a straight pitch in return.
The other party froze solid. Her expression remained mild, but inside she was surely scrambling for the right words.
“That is…”
“Why do I have to apologize!”
But every carefully rolled thought became useless at once. The culprit of the incident had reappeared, showing not a shred of self-reflection.
The young lady’s lovely eyes turned cold for an instant.
“Hero or not, you’ll just end up dead at the hands of some demon—”
And the moment he finally crossed the line, my roleplay persona also put its hand on the hilt.
Bang!
“Ghk!”
“Eek!”
“Demon Knight!”
I had been waiting for an excuse; this was perfect.
I knew violence wasn’t right, but I had still wanted to crack that skull once. And then he went and said something that forced the persona to step in.
“Say that again.”
I stomped the ground right in front of him—literally stomped, sending cracks racing outward into a crater—and drew my sword in the space of less than seventy centimeters between us.
“Who dies to a demon?”
“Ugh…”
Whether from the shock of me shaking the earth or not, he had toppled backward, so I didn’t even need to look down a full head to meet his eyes.
My blade rose as if ready to pierce his ample belly.
“Y-young master!”
“Who. Dies. To a demon. I asked.”
The sheer menace kept him from looking away. Good.
“If you harm the young master—”
“I did not ask you.”
Good, good. The angle even put the light source behind me; this ought to scare even that scoundrel properly.
“Unless you want your tongue ripped out, shut your mouth.”
“…….”
Separately, this guy was a real piece of work. Surrounded by attendants and guards, yet not one of them looked ready to risk their life for him.
Truly zero popularity.
“Tsk. Once again a comrade stole the turn.”
“…You were about to jump in too? Please restrain yourself.”
“But that thing has no value in living—”
“Aaagh. You’re right, but say it quietly! He can hear you!”
Apparently Berserk had also been ready to act. Unlike me, who had calculated the before and after, she had intended to kill outright.
“I-I’m… the lord’s son…”
“That is not an answer to my question.”
“I-if you hurt me…”
In that case, my stepping in might actually be the best option. I only planned to threaten, after all.
He was the lord’s favored son, wasn’t he?
A threat could be papered over together with their apology, but drawing blood would almost certainly go too far.
And no matter how much we had the Hero as backing, making an enemy of the lord brought no benefit. Especially when this was closer to illegal than legal.
“I said that is not an answer to my question.”
“Hiiik!”
So I only held the sword as if about to thrust. The way he raised his guard, clearly believing it would really pierce him, was a deliberate misunderstanding on my part.
Shiiisss.
…I hadn’t intended for this, though.
Watching someone’s trousers darken with a spreading stain, I chewed the inside of my cheek so it wouldn’t show.
In exchange for someone’s dignity, my own exit from the scene now looked far more natural.
“…Even staining my blade with the blood of a worm like you would be an insult. Never appear before my eyes again.”
I sheathed the sword I had never swung. Then I stepped back hurriedly before the urine could reach my boots.
Having an automatic laundry function and deliberately soiling myself with filth I didn’t need to were two different things.
“…Let us consider this roughly settled, Inquisitor.”
“But…”
“Even if he committed a crime, we do not have the right to threaten his life either. Ending the matter here seems better for all of us. Do you not agree?”
With that, the argument that looked ready to drag on also ended. As I left the room I caught a snatch of the conversation behind me.
“I don’t care either way.”
“Pfft. Berserk doesn’t care either. I have no desire to look at such a pathetic thing any longer.”
“…If that is your will, then so be it. In return, the money brought will be donated as is. And you lot—I will hold you responsible later. Take Hayden back to the castle.”
“…Yes! Young lady!”
“M-mad… this is insane… how could he… how could he do that to me…”
As expected, the matter was closed with a rough settlement.
“…Originally I had come to speak of more valuable matters with all of you.”
“Is that so? If that conversation is for everyone’s sake, how could this incident affect it?”
“…Then, risking further discourtesy, may I request a conversation?”
“That depends on the nature of the talk.”
“It concerns the letter sent from Ednium.”
And the closed matter brought a new development with it.
A premonition rose that our situation, which had been blocked without a single clue, was finally about to open.