It Doesn't Flow Away (7)
I had braced myself for suspicion when I brought Dev back alive. If the temple tried to kill him, I was ready to intervene and had excuses prepared to cover for it afterward.
As it turned out, none of that was necessary.
Maybe the accumulated mixed feelings of fondness and irritation had led them to let it slide this once, or something along those lines. Not only did no one question me—they didn't even ask anything at all.
The voices calling for his execution were handled by the party themselves, Kimchi Dumpling included, so there was no need for me to step in on that front either. A fortunate turn of events, if one could call it that.
Of course, as a precautionary smoke screen, I still made a show of regarding Dev with complicated eyes, clenching my right arm tight, and gritting my teeth as if tormented by inner conflict.
"If we are to pursue the demon, the recovery of our slippery friend must come first. Yet we cannot afford to let that time pass in vain. Thus I have brought the Young Lord with me."
In the meantime, the Inquisitor had elegantly escaped her surveillance room and opened the conversation. I was glad I had hidden myself on the roof of the lodging without anyone noticing. I had nearly missed the entire exchange.
Naturally, the happiest part I overheard was the little scene those two dumplings had just put on.
As expected, the Inquisitor was the finest dumpling of them all—the greatest Hero. It took a huge load off the worry I had been carrying about how to restore Meat Dumpling's self-esteem.
"I intend to offer counsel regarding the demon subjugation as well, but before that, there is something I must hear. Young Lord, what exactly happened?"
Setting all that aside, this was the part that demanded my focus now. From an angle where I could just make out their faces, I waited to see what they would say.
"...Since I have already been found out, there is no point in hiding it any longer."
The man whose looks could have made him look tragic, yet somehow only came off as pitiful, finally opened his mouth after a long silence.
"First, the being that clashed with the Hero's companion is Biryuho."
"Wait... Biryuho, as in...!"
"You grasp it immediately, Archmage. Yes, it is exactly the existence you are thinking of. The former ruler of the western lands, who vanished several centuries ago."
"Why would such a being...?"
At the Archmage's question, the Young Lord's expression turned strange for a moment—somewhere between hollowed-out and, to put it crudely, utterly soul-crushed.
"Some time ago, in my ignorance, I once rescued a cat."
"A cat?"
"It was little more than throwing some food to a pitiful thing shivering in the rain... but as it turned out, that cat was Biryuho."
"...What a peculiar connection."
"Yes. Yet that tiny bond seemed to please Biryuho greatly. After that, She began... clinging to me rather excessively. Claiming I belonged to Her..."
The Young Lord paused there for a long breath. The others did much the same.
The obsession of none other than an Ancient Beast. And this when he already had a fiancée.
The Young Lord's fate was truly, thoroughly twisted.
"Then the reason you could not properly speak last time...?"
"Pardon? Ah, do you mean the day you brought the letter?"
"Yes."
The Young Lord's face grew troubled at the question.
"That was not me. It was Biryuho impersonating me."
No wonder he looked so troubled.
"...That is astonishing. I never noticed anything amiss."
"Haha..."
Separately, I finally understood why the Young Lord had acted that way that day.
Even holding a letter from his lover, he had shown no joy whatsoever—because it had not been him at all.
His half-hearted, almost resentful reaction made sense now too.
Who would be happy to receive a letter from the official lover of the human they obsessively claimed as their own?
And the reason he had not properly explained the cat story was probably because that cat had been Her herself.
"Then the letter...?"
"Unfortunately, I never saw it. Biryuho burned it."
Ah, so that was why She had kept going on about the fishy smell. I still didn't know why Biryuho smelled fishiness on me—maybe it was the Sea Dragon's bead?—but She had made the same comment both in the Lord's form and in Her true form.
Come to think of it, that passerby who had muttered about my fishy stench... could that have been Biryuho in disguise as well?
"Hmm. This may be somewhat presumptuous, but is the beast disaster in Camborer...?"
"...That, too, was Biryuho's doing. I only learned of it myself not long ago... but who else could have orchestrated something like this?"
So the cause of the beast attacks had come to light. I had assumed it was the work of a demon, but the culprit was an unexpected one. A divine beast gone mad with love, attacking an entire city.
I had considered the possibility, but it seemed the demon who had been toying with Dev and this incident really were separate matters after all.
Did that make the weight and seriousness of the situation any less? Not in the slightest.
After all, there were already victims. Dead ones, even. Whether demon or Ancient Beast, anyone who casually slaughtered people deserved the iron hammer of justice. Species didn't matter the moment they started killing people on a whim.
And it wasn't as if Biryuho was contributing anything to the city either—judging by the phrase "left long ago."
So wasn't it perfectly fine to make Her pay a fitting price?
"However... there is no further need for concern on that point. I will no longer neglect my duty."
"Duty, you say?"
"The root of this matter is my engagement to the Young Lord of Camborer. Biryuho is obstructing it because She dislikes the betrothal. Therefore, would it not solve everything if I simply broke off with the Young Lord of Camborer?"
"What?!"
Apparently the people here held a different opinion. They weren't even discussing punishment—only countermeasures.
"But..."
"I am the Young Lord of Ednium, and the one who will become the next Lord. The rights granted to me come at the price of ensuring the safety of my city's people and bringing them a better future."
"..."
"I have no intention of neglecting my duty for the sake of my rights. That is the weight of this position. Frankly, having already wasted a whole week simply because I did not want to part from Mia, I feel any further delay would be excessive. Camborer has suffered tremendous damage in the meantime..."
The Young Lord met the eyes of the one who had jumped the most—the Inquisitor. "I am fine with it." That smile almost looked relieved.
"...I do not believe this is the right choice. What sin have the Lord of Camborer and her people committed?"
"You are correct. They are without sin. There is no reason they should be struck by such calamity. Yet natural disasters do not arrive carrying reasons."
"Biryuho is not a natural disaster."
"No—when one cannot hold Her accountable, She might as well be one."
"Why can we not hold Her accountable?!"
"Because humans lack the power to oppose Her!"
"...!"
"...In the first place, Biryuho has no reason to abide by the laws of men. Just as humans do not apologize to an ant colony for crushing a few ants underfoot. In that sense... Mia, the Young Lord of Camborer, will understand. Of course she will be furious... but there is no other way. I must protect the people of my city, and... I also wish to protect Mia and her city. I do not want them to suffer or die any further. Especially not because of a choice I made."
I found myself admiring an attitude that reminded me of a certain second son I had seen in Camborer.
Those who had already suffered would no doubt still blame him for not deciding sooner, yet this was the conclusion he had reached after struggling in his own way.
He had not wished for anyone's death, and the Young Lord looked barely twenty. That a young man would willingly sacrifice himself to save others—that devotion deserved recognition.
Well, devotion or not, I personally found that bastard Biryuho thoroughly unpleasant.
Call it noblesse oblige if you want; in reality it was just offering himself up as a living sacrifice.
And setting the couple's issues aside, people who had lost family to the beast attacks still remained.
If the Young Lord of Ednium stayed silent, they would be forced into silence as well. What sin had they committed that they must simply shut their mouths and move on?
"...No. This is not something that should be understood. A one-sided sacrifice like this must never be accepted!"
While I was thinking that, the Inquisitor spoke up.
As expected of our Kimchi Dumpling. She never disappointed.
"No matter how difficult, we cannot simply let it pass! She must be punished!"
Yes, that's our Kimchi Dumpling! Call for a fight against that rotten Biryuho! We already took down the Sea Dragon—there's no way I can't catch Biryuho!
Let's hunt down that tiger brat who's been acting like a thug without doing a single good thing! While we're at it catching the demon, let's thrash that one too!
"Did I not just tell you? There is no way we could punish Biryuho..."
"An Ancient Beast is not invincible!"
"Biryuho will never quietly admit to any crime! And we cannot simply kill Her either!"
At the Young Lord's words, the Inquisitor's eyes deepened.
"Why can we not kill Her?"
Those were the eyes of an Inquisitor who knew only one thing. Or perhaps the eyes of a stubborn person who, even after realizing something, refused to compromise.
"Punishment must not vary in severity according to power, wealth, or strength. And in the case of murder, if there are no mitigating circumstances, the sentence is always death. That is the nature of the crime of harming another. Therefore, is Biryuho—who killed dozens of people simply because they displeased Her—not also subject to the death penalty? Am I wrong in thinking so?"
"I-Inquisitor. Even so, Biryuho is an object of worship..."
"I saw the corrupted Sea Dragon in the western sea. It too was an object of worship, yet when people began dying because of it, they took up their swords. How is this any different from that?"
"...I have heard fragments of the story of the western sea. But that place faced the destruction of the entire Western Sea, did it not?"
"Dozens of people are dead, solely for the sake of Her own desire. That means Biryuho prioritizes Her desire over human lives. Is there any guarantee this will not happen again?"
"That is..."
"There are those who commit evil even without harboring malice. I was taught that such people must be watched most carefully of all, and even after everything I have experienced, my judgment remains the same. Once someone has committed evil, without some form of intervention, they can and will do it a second and a third time. Because they have learned that no one will stop them."
"..."
"I ask again. Do you still believe She must not be killed?"
"...There is no way we could kill Her."
"No. That is not for the Young Lord to decide."
The Inquisitor fixed the Young Lord with a firm gaze.
"The strength of the evil that must be purged is our responsibility to handle."
Ah, of course we can kill Her. When I clashed with that thing earlier, She was nothing special.
"...It cannot be done."
Yet the words that finally emerged after a long pause were a refusal.
"Why?"
"Even if we truly could kill Her... there is still a problem."
"A problem?"
"In the past, after Biryuho left, the land began to dry. Whether the two are truly connected I cannot say, but if that is the truth... should Biryuho come to harm, the land might dry up year-round."
"...That is..."
"I do not wish to take that gamble. It is not only my life at stake, but the lives of the citizens as well. If the entire East were to dry up, it would not be thousands but tens or hundreds of thousands of lives hanging in the balance."
At that, neither the Inquisitor nor I had anything more to say. Neither of us possessed the courage to stake millions of lives on extracting payment for a few dozen dead.
"...I see. I understand."
In the end, the Inquisitor declared her defeat.
"...I am sorry I could not be of more help."
"No, this is... simply a matter beyond human hands."
"...Though it may not amount to a substitute, I can offer a small measure of assistance."
Stepping in to fill the silence was the Archmage.
"A small measure of assistance...?"
"What matters most right now is ending the beast disaster as quickly as possible, is it not? For that, the engagement must be broken off swiftly."
"Yes...?"
"Therefore, I shall deliver the message through magic."
"Is that possible...? There are no mages in Camborer..."
"There is an investigation team from the Magic Tower that has decided to stay briefly in Camborer for research. Fortunately, I have a means of contacting them. It will be far faster than sending a messenger."
Listening to their conversation, I tried to soothe my bitter heart by drifting into idle thoughts.
Anyway, the other Ancient Beasts were fine— the Sea Dragon had gone a bit off, but that was because its successor got corrupted; its original nature hadn't seemed rotten— so why was this place such a mess?
Biryuho was the White Tiger, right? White Tiger meant tiger. Why was a tiger's personality like this? Did it fail to gain any character because there was no garlic and mugwort around?
"...Thank you. Thank you."
"I am only sorry that this is all the help I can offer."
"No, this is the greatest help of all."
Really, why were there so many unfair things in this world?
Mia, the Young Lord of Camborer, fell silent for a long time after the urgent telegram was delivered.
And once the report was finished and the mage had left, she collapsed onto the floor of her office as if her strength had given out. Her longtime friend and aide, Yohanna, watched her carefully.
"You okay?"
"I should answer that of course I am, now that we've found the cause of the beast attacks and learned it will soon stop... but I just can't."
"Mia."
"Ha, so if you and I break up, it'll all be solved? Then everything will be over? Are you kidding me? People died! Twenty-five people are dead!"
Still seated on the floor, Mia rested a hand on the sofa. Her nails, deformed from gripping a pen more than eight hours a day, raked across the fabric as if they would tear it.
"Not only do I have to watch my lover get stolen right in front of me, but my own city's people are dead—and I'm supposed to just move on without even punishing the one responsible?!"
No— it wasn't "as if." Her nails finally pierced the thick upholstery.
"Your—your hand."
"How... how can this be..."
"Mia, last time you did this you couldn't use your hand for ages. Let go of that for now and talk."
"How...!!"
Under Yohanna's coaxing, the sofa was finally freed. The body that had crumpled to the floor was forced upright and moved to the office chair.
"How can the world be like this..."
Even so, her mind did not return. Mia pressed the back of her hand to her eyes.
Honestly, she felt nothing but disgust. She had believed she had endured well for so long, yet in an instant everything seemed utterly meaningless.
"After Mother died I put up with that woman who came out of nowhere, swaggering around and taking over the household. I smiled through being threatened for my position by that bastard half-sibling just because he was the favorite, and through being the one stuck cleaning up after that idiot. And the result of living like that is sudden disaster and having the person I love stolen away? Is that fair?"
"Mia..."
"Hah, right. Calling him a bastard half-sibling was wrong. That little shit is the new stepmother's child, after all. Even if Father that piece of trash fathered him by cheating before Mother even died, he still claims the boy only inherited the stepmother's blood."
She broke off mid-sentence and slammed her fist down on the desk in fresh rage. Bang! The blow rang out with tremendous force.
"But this is too much. After everything I've lived through and endured—just when I'd finally secured my place and was about to live happily with the one I love—some beast-bastard sets its eyes on my man and says no? And on top of that, people from my city died because of that thing, and I just have to shut up and take it? Does that make any sense?!"
"It's not a beast-bastard, it's Biryuho..."
"Worshipped or not, a beast is a beast! If it wanted to be treated like a true god, it should never have left—or never come back!"
Meanwhile, Yohanna—who knew her lord and friend's temper all too well—flinched hard at Mia's shout.
"When I was so miserable I wanted to die, it never once showed its face—and now it dares. It dares..."
Yet more than that, she simply felt sorry for her lord.
She had watched everything: how much Mia had suffered after her mother died, trapped between a stepmother who barged in as if she had nothing to hide and a younger half-brother who strutted around more arrogantly than anyone while keeping only the fact of his illegitimacy hidden.
And the reason Mia had endured all that pain was just one thing—her mother's dying wish that she look after the city.
Because of that single will, she had withstood a father who played favorites, a stepmother who kept her in check, and an arrogant half-brother, becoming a Young Lord praised by every citizen. Never once thinking of her own happiness, solely to keep that one promise.
That was why the Young Lord of Ednium, who had made Mia happy, had been all the more welcome...
"Yohanna."
"Yeah."
"What makes me even angrier is that there's no way to resist. I'd love nothing more than to go kill that beast-bastard, but for a mere animal it's just too strong..."
"...Mia."
"Ah, and strength isn't even the whole problem. There'll be plenty of people who'll rant about what happens after we kill it, or shout that it's more profitable to keep the beast alive and milk its blessings forever. Of course there will. If it wasn't their own family who died, that really is the more profitable choice."
"..."
"...But you know what's funny? The moment I realized that for all those reasons there's no way to get rid of it, no way to punish it—I found myself thinking maybe I should just throw everything away and run off with Leon."
"...! You...!"
"Pretty pathetic, right? How can a person even think that? Never mind the odds of successfully running—if I leave, who looks after the people who've already been hurt? If I leave, this city falls to that fucking bastard, and what about the fallout from that? The chance that the remaining people will bleed from Biryuho's rage?"
"...Mia, you don't actually think of the Young Lord that way..."
"Completely irresponsible. I know. I know that, but... on the other hand, damn it. Why did Mother leave me that will? I've never once resented it until now, but right this moment I'm just so bitter. I know that the rights we enjoy come with the duty to sacrifice, and that no matter the responsibility we must never step back. Even so, I... I..."
Yohanna simply held her friend tightly as she finally burst into tears.
Why was it that someone who had filled the role so splendidly received no reward at all? Was there truly no way for people like them—who had been able to live better lives precisely because Mia was the Young Lord—to repay her? She herself wondered the same.
"This the place?"
Over the course of a day, Dev recovered. It wasn't a full recovery, but enough that he no longer felt like he would die while being carried around on someone's back.
On top of that, the party for hunting the demon—though with this size it was more like a full raid group—had been assembled in the meantime.
Thirty soldiers provided by the Lord and around forty capable priests— the mages had been left out because it would take them too long to get here— so the moment I joined, we would be ready to depart.
Dragging things out any longer would break character. I finally set aside the thought of appearing even later and showed myself to them.
The fact that the party set out the instant I returned went without saying.
"Yes."
"...I can feel the Demon Energy. I think even I can track it now."
And the moment we reached a deep part of a certain forest after half a day of hard riding—
"Wait, the Demon Energy is getting closer—!"
"Huh? It's coming this way?"
The demon revealed itself. It was the exact same demon that had given me the missile-like weapon, and the one Dev had described before.
As expected, Dev was no traitor.
"Die, demon."
And now that it was certain this bastard had tormented our Meat Dumpling, there was no way I was letting it leave in one piece.
Kill it.
Come on, you son of a bitch. You're dead.