What Does Not Flow Away (3)
In that brief instant, Deathbringer recalled a great many things.
“……?”
Yet the moment his gaze locked with those inorganic gray eyes, he forgot them all.
In the end, he at least seized power.
Only those words—ridiculously, only those words—kept circling through his mind.
Even though we thrash about the same way, he can grasp more, achieve a deeper revenge.
He knew full well how much you had suffered because of the demon, how many despairs and countless sorrows you had endured, yet jealousy reared its head first all the same.
Crack.
The sheer shame of it made it impossible for him to stand before you.
He left in a hurry, before the Demon Knight could grasp the situation, before people could throng in and expose his true nature.
As always, that knight did not stop him.
“Where do you think you’re going, young hunter!”
That knight.
Did not catch him.
“Waaah!”
“Berserk understands nothing! Explain yourself before you leave!”
“Ugh, I don’t know!!”
The instant he burst onto the street and shoved past the crowds, the earth itself thudded and groaned. He did not even need to look back; that weight could belong only to Berserk.
She ran faster than the Inquisitor, and unlike the priests—or ordinary folk—she was not bound by roads, so of course she had been the first to give chase.
“Explain and then go!!”
“I said I don’t know!!”
His legs found new strength of their own accord. A distance that would normally have been closed in an instant somehow refused to shrink.
Even he could feel it: he had become remarkably faster.
“Young hunter!!”
So he poured on still more speed.
Why the sudden surge, he had no idea. Ah—no. When the temporary contract had been forced upon him, they had promised to strengthen his body in exchange for the gag order that forbade him from speaking of it. That had to be it.
But how was this “slight”? His running speed had improved enough that he could feel the difference.
Deathbringer barked a dry laugh and dove into an alley.
He had not asked for the physical boost, yet the chance it now gave him—to run nearly neck-and-neck—was perfect.
Hiding was his specialty as much as tracking. He would shake them off through the alleys and vanish. That, he was certain, was the only path left for survival.
Besides, he had been born in this very city. Ten years might change some things, but not everything.
He could do it.
He could leave them behind.
Deathbringer’s eyes glittered with cold ferocity.
“Hunter!”
Of course Berserk kept pace without difficulty.
Her physical gifts let her snatch up the faintest signs of movement, and her near-psychic instincts could pin down a hiding place with unnerving accuracy.
“Here, is it?”
Yet in the end she was a warrior, not a hunter.
“Seems like around here…….”
Even allowing for that instinct of hers, it was not impossible to slip past her eyes. After all, he had once deceived even the Demon Knight.
And he still had the item that let him sense people through walls.
So Deathbringer held his breath still tighter and ignored the figure who peered over the wall right behind him.
“Hmm…….”
Berserk laid a hand on the window frame—the very sill he had climbed through.
Crunch.
The sheer power in her grip was enough that a light press crumbled the wood a little.
But in the end, he won.
Berserk slowly moved away.
Hoo. The breath he had been holding for so long finally eased out a fraction.
Bang!
“Still nothing, huh?”
Just as he was about to draw his item, the presence that had seemed to recede came rushing back and seized the sill again. Deathbringer froze so completely that even the finest hairs on his skin stopped trembling.
“Phew.”
The one mercy was that Berserk never once looked down.
It was darkest under the lamp, as they said. Deathbringer felt a flash of relief at her carelessness.
“Her instincts really are damn near supernatural…….”
Careless or not, those instincts matched her power. Though she had left, she had not given him a safe distance.
She was circling the area instead.
“Hah.”
Risk-taking was not to his taste, yet the world never spun the way one wished.
Berserk showed no sign of leaving soon, and she was far from the only one hunting him now.
So he used the item to track her position and walked at measured intervals. When she suddenly changed direction or broke into a run, he never startled or bolted—of course not.
If the quarry had already lost his scent, the rest was a contest of nerve. Running made more noise than walking, and a veteran warrior like her would never miss that noise.
One step. Two. When Berserk made a loud sound, he used the cover of her footfalls to gain a little more ground.
Every other sound he suppressed completely. He moved so that even the breath leaving his lungs carried no hint of life—so that only silence and stillness came to visit.
Thud-thud-thud.
And when that massive frame finally vanished in the opposite direction—
he shifted locations in earnest. Berserk’s instincts might have finally lost their edge, but the number of people searching for him was only growing.
“This kind of popularity I can do without, even if it kills me.”
Dangerous as things were, he could not help the flippant remark.
Mocking his overnight change of fortune, he slipped out of the alley.
With the greatest threat—Berserk—gone, slipping the net was no longer hopeless.
The priests kept tracking him, perhaps following residual demon energy; that was inconvenient, but not an immediate threat to his life.
And even that pursuit would end once he left the city. He could hold out.
Boom!
“Where—”
But—
“—do you think you’re going?”
The overwhelming magic power he had been trying so hard to avoid suddenly closed in and erupted from the alley mouth. That was simply unfair.
The way the figure braced against the wall, ready to smash a path closed, was just as bad for the heart. He was so startled he could not even scream.
“M-my lord…….”
Deathbringer stared up at the gaze that looked down on him from above and swallowed hard.
Had the Demon Knight always been this huge? He had never noticed when they were allies. Honestly, his hands and feet were shaking hard enough to rattle.
“I asked you a question.”
Shit. Was this the terror everyone who had ever faced the Demon Knight had felt?
He marveled that his heart had not simply stopped, and shuffled backward. The Demon Knight had blocked the path with one hand on the wall, but he had not fully caged him yet, so retreat was still possible.
“W-well…….”
Had he already heard about the temporary contract with the demon? The fact that he had not cut him down in a single stroke gave some grounds for hope that he had not.
But if he had not heard, he would not have come after him at all.
Deathbringer lowered his eyes and bowed his head of his own accord. The hand that slipped into the folds of his cloak slowly clenched into a fist.
“Even if I said it was a misunderstanding…… you wouldn’t believe me, would you……?”
He spoke with the faintest scrap of hope. Yet before any answer could come, he discarded the possibility himself. It was something he had no right to hope for.
“…….”
So he tightened his grip on whatever rested between his palms.
“……!”
Slash!
The cursed sword the Demon Knight himself had given him carved a line across the Demon Knight’s cheek.
“…Tch.”
A surprise strike aimed at the head, and all it left was a thin thread of blood on the cheek. He had never expected the attack to succeed in the first place.
Instead he hurled his body forward. Afraid of breaking his rhythm, he did not even manage to say “I’m sorry.”
Thud!
His body slipped into the gap that opened between the Demon Knight and the wall when the knight raised his arm.
He scraped a little, yet somehow his body tumbled past and out behind the Demon Knight.
How did he fail to react? That question he set aside for later. Whatever the reason for the delayed response, it was pure luck for him.
He could die if he must, yet right now he simply did not want to die.
Not because his own life was precious or valuable, but because if he died here, what would become of the people who had died because of him? That single reason alone.
Tap-tap-tap.
All that remained now was to run as if his life depended on it.
He never even saw the Demon Knight touch the wound on his cheek as he burst out onto the main avenue.
Temple people would be thick on the ground, but that no longer mattered.
As long as the Demon Knight possessed the power to cut down enemies even at range, Deathbringer had no choice but to melt into the crowd.
Of course, even that only worked because the Demon Knight was not the sort of man who would accept civilian casualties. If he had been someone who put demon-hunting above innocent lives, Deathbringer would never have set foot on the street at all.
“There he is!!”
Ugh. This is getting ridiculous.
Deathbringer swerved to avoid the figures charging from the opposite direction. The new heading put the castle dead ahead, but that was hardly important.
If he could just get out of sight, fooling other eyes was not impossible—whether the place was a castle, a thoroughfare, or an alley.
“You!”
“Ah.”
Even Softie had shown up after all.
He had not had time to check with his item, so the presence he had missed now stood right in front of him. Not a fatal problem.
If Softie sealed the entire street with that damnable barrier of his, things would get a little awkward—but Deathbringer knew any number of underhanded, cowardly tricks to counter it.
Whoosh!
He yanked something out and scattered it into the air.
Fwoosh.
“Ghk—cough!”
It was the pepper he had ground and packed as backup when the three of them had gone charging into the forest looking for a demon—leftover from that day.
Well, even he had never imagined he would end up using it like this.
“Cough—hack!”
In any case he flung pepper more precious than gold of equal weight into the air—not that he felt especially wasteful; it had not been bought with his own money—and twisted his body hard.
A little coughing if inhaled, nothing more; a harmless spice, so he felt almost no guilt.
Instead he threw something else as well. Multicolored powder billowed through the air.
Click!
He struck flint and sent sparks flying after it.
Flame caught the powder and set off a string of tiny pops. On bare skin the blasts would sting only a little.
But the goal was not to harm anyone. He only wanted colored smoke to sow chaos.
“Waaah!!”
“Wh-what—what is that!”
“Cough, cough!”
Civilians began to panic and scatter.
“Just a moment, please make way—”
“Everyone, remain calm……!”
Watching the crowd unintentionally block the priests, he bolted for the building on his left.
A greengrocer’s stall stood in the way, yet his feet found the boards and tent poles and vaulted him easily upward.
“Cough—you bastard, really!”
He had chosen the rooftops over the street for a simple reason.
That stuffy fellow possessed no long-range attack, but his signature barrier could still seal a path. Since the ability had no killing power, civilian eyes did not matter either.
“Oh God!”
A golden barrier bloomed above his head. Deathbringer’s legs twisted on a diagonal.
Whoosh.
He leapt down from the building. The structure itself would keep the barrier from crushing him.
But he could not simply land on the street. Even as he jumped he twisted toward the next building.
Crack.
His body sailed diagonally forward into the open air before the next block; his hand snagged the edge of that roof—outside the barrier’s reach.
Then he hauled himself up and ran again. The same tactic worked when the barrier formed in front of him instead of above.
Deathbringer rolled inward to break Softie’s line of sight and kept advancing.
It was a genuine mercy that the Inquisitor was too heavily armored to climb buildings and could only use the streets. The same went for Berserk, who was nowhere in sight, and for the Demon Knight, who for some reason was no longer chasing.
Good. At this rate he could use the castle’s secret bolt-hole he had scouted long ago and get out.
Deathbringer recalculated his escape route on the fly and drew the item that let him pinpoint magic-users.
He had no desire to suffer another heart-stopping ambush like earlier.
Fortunately, everyone except the Inquisitor was still a good distance away. He could run a little more freely now.
He had regained freedom of movement, yet that did not mean complete liberation.
So Young Lord Leon of Ednium sat in the study that opened onto the garden, his face clouded with unease.
The being that had taken the shape of a white cat purred on his knee, offering clumsy, unwanted affection.
I miss Mia. He repeated the thought he could not speak aloud, eyes already stinging. He wanted—truly, desperately—to see his bold, steadfast lover again.
“Haa.”
What had Mia written in the letter she sent?
Judging by the snatches of conversation he had managed to overhear from the guests, she must have asked about the “beast incident.” He had written to her as well, and the guests had brought up the cat, after all.
Though Biryuho’s interference had ruined everything.
Ah, he really had to find some way to tell her the truth. He glanced down at the source of every evil currently curled on his lap.
Sensing the gaze, the cat looked up at him in turn. The pink eyes so like his lover’s—eyes that had once forced him to endure his fur allergy just so he could toss it food—blinked slowly.
“…….”
He turned his face away again, unable to cry yet equally unable to smile.
For a beast that lived on in legend, at least the lack of an allergic reaction was a small mercy… yet the harm it caused was far too great to overlook for that single kindness.
Even setting Mia’s status as his lover aside, dozens of people were already dead. Not citizens of his own city, yet people who were almost certainly innocent.
But… the problem was that he had no way to resolve this. Strictly speaking, the only remaining path after parting from Mia was to offer himself as a sacrifice to appease Biryuho.
“Spit out the truth!”
Was that truly the only answer left?
He drew out a fresh sheet of letter paper.
There was a limit to how long one could neglect a crisis for the sake of one’s own love. He had already been selfish enough; now that the last hope—asking Mia for rescue—had been cut off, he had to decide.
Even if the decision cast him into misery, it would be for everyone’s sake.
A decision that would keep Mia and her city safe.
“Catch the bastard who killed the former lord!”
If he had known it would come to this, he should have broken off the engagement the moment he realized the explosive growth of the beasts was Biryuho’s doing. Then Mia would have been at least a little less trapped.
Leon moved the pen, a few tears falling without his noticing.
The cat that had climbed onto the desk as if to supervise the letter looked at the contents and wore a satisfied expression.
“If it really wasn’t you, then right now—!”
“…Even after I said it wasn’t!”
Yet even knowing this was the choice for everyone’s sake, and for his lover’s sake, the rising bitterness could not be helped.
He deliberately knocked over the ink bottle at the sound of the protest outside. The tears that had beaded on his lashes fell with soft plops.
[My, my…….]
At that the cat leapt down from the desk. With a soft rustle its form swelled naturally into a white-gold human shape.
Biryuho’s fingers traced Leon’s cheek.
[Do those outside bother you? If you wish it, this body shall clear them away for you.]
“…I do not wish for that.”
[Yet they are making things difficult for you, are they not?]
The one making things most difficult for me right now is you. Leon swallowed the words and let the tears stream down his face.
“…No.”
Ah, Mia. I hope you aren’t suffering too much.
No—more than that, I’m terrified you might come here yourself to learn the truth. If a plea for rescue and a farewell notice arrive one after the other, you are exactly the sort of person who will grow suspicious.
The kind of woman who will come in person to dig out the truth with her own two eyes…….
[Then why do you weep?]
“That is…….”
I used to love that about you, but right now I almost hate it. If I had known it would come to this, I would have sent the farewell letter from the very beginning.
If I had known, I would never have confessed to you in the first place…….
[Tch.]
Biryuho suddenly clicked her tongue. Leon’s head snapped up on reflex.
[I took it for a mere beast passing by.]
What new problem now? He followed Biryuho’s gaze toward the garden connected to the study.
Thud.
Someone tumbled down beneath a tree. Dark hair showed between the folds of a hood. The tree’s shadow made the exact shade impossible to tell.
[So it was a human.]
He could swear to only one thing: this was by no means a good situation.
Leon’s face turned the color of earth in an instant.