Spouting Excuses (6)
—What……
—If you dislike the land drying up, you say?
“Would you care to explain exactly what you mean by that?”
Instead of answering, I tossed the leaf scroll to the Lord of Ednium.
“This is……”
“A reply I received from the priests who serve the descendants of Yukgui.”
“……! Yukgui!”
—Yukgui… isn’t that an Ancient Beast dwelling in the Great Forest?
—I heard the Great Forest is so closed off that exchange is difficult……
My answer seemed to draw a ripple of surprise from those present.
“Demon Knight, you……”
The Archmage immediately grasped the meaning of my action.
The Lord of Ednium unfolded the scroll with swift yet dignified care.
“This is… the script of the Great Forest, is it? Illegible—ah, and this is the translation.”
He spread the leaf scroll across the center of the table for all to see, then began to recite the interpretation himself.
To the Benefactor of the Great Forest, the Black Thunder Snake.
I have heard the tale brought by the messenger you sent. It is said that just as you once delivered the Great Forest, you are now saving yet more people……
…Lord Sangun declares that the Ancient Beasts have no true connection to the flow of the world. Though their power is vast enough to allow a measure of interference, neither their death nor their departure will cause the life of a region to vanish.
Additionally, I offer a word of caution born of old concern. I have heard that the West grows barren at fixed seasons for no apparent reason. It was not always so; the phenomenon began only after the Ancient Beast that had settled there departed. Therefore the cause may well be that departed Ancient Beast……!
As I said earlier: an Ancient Beast’s power is great enough to interfere with the world’s flow. That interference usually takes the form of hastening or delaying the current. They cannot halt it entirely, yet they can temporarily prevent the birth of life.
Of course this may not be the case. Yet Sangun appears certain. Therefore, Benefactor, I beg you to take care. You are the guardian of the young, the liberator of the oppressed, and the judge of the unjust; once you learn this truth I know you will move to deliver fitting punishment. Yet your opponent is a spirit beast that has lived upon this land since the most ancient days. It will not be an easy foe.
Even so, since you will advance for the sake of saving all, I pray that victory may attend the Black Thunder Snake.
— Great Chief Ekuya
The letter was somewhat long, yet not overly so. Once the praise directed at me—enough to make my face heat while it was being read—along with the compliments for my companions, their own well-wishes, and the blessings of fortune were set aside, only a few paragraphs of true importance remained.
Yes. That was it. Exactly what I had hoped for.
The firm assurance that even if Biryuho perished, this land would not fall to ruin. That was why I had sent the letter.
—What!
—Wait, what does that mean……
Though the lord himself could not keep emotion from his voice as he read, he raised a hand to quiet the assembly.
Then he finished the letter. His voice, now carrying greater force, rolled through the chamber in a deeper hue.
Thankfully he did not read the postscript.
Of course not. The messenger I had sent—the information guild—had asked whether a measure of future cooperation (the provision of intelligence) would be acceptable; that was the bulk of the remaining content. Had he read that as well, I would have questioned his judgment. It had no place in this council.
“…Some further explanation regarding this letter seems necessary.”
And yet he still wanted more explanation here?
“This is… this is……”
“That is the whole of it, and nothing further is required. So decide. Whether you will resist unjust power, or submit while offering the blood of others simply because you dislike spilling your own.”
I was sorry, but I lacked the confidence to dress the words prettily, so we would end it there.
“I will, however, offer one warning. Just because the blood spilled now is not yours is no guarantee that the next will not be either.”
After all, the choice before them was a simple binary.
—How can we know that letter is not a lie……
Even so, someone still feared the blood that would be spilled at once. A voice rose to deny the evidence placed before them.
“That letter is the truth!”
—And you are……?
“He is a Hero.”
—Hup.
But the Inquisitor crushed the doubt on the spot. Those who had been about to side with the first lord fell silent as well.
“Before coming to this land we passed through the Great Forest and saved its people! And at the heart of every deed stood the Demon Knight; therefore the Demon Knight is more than qualified to receive a reply from them!”
The letter’s credibility was now sealed. Only two choices remained to them.
Hesitation and passive watching were no longer options.
—If that is the truth.
In that instant a voice of absolute clarity rang through the council chamber.
—Camborer will fight.
It was the Deputy Lord of Camborer.
—Deputy Lord of Camborer!
—I mean that Camborer will never yield, no matter what result follows.
—Lord of Camborer, will you not speak?!
—Th-that is……
—My lord, please speak at once!
—I… I……
—The citizens do not even wish for this! Is this right, Lord of Camborer!
Of course she was immediately besieged. Using the fact that she was only the deputy, the other lords tried every means to silence her.
Yet the Lord of Camborer standing right beside her merely hemmed and hawed, unable to open his mouth with any ease. The way his eyes kept flicking toward the deputy made it look as though he were watching her for cues.
—Ah, I never imagined you would all prove so tender-hearted as to worry over the citizens of our city. Seeing how readily you meant to sacrifice a mere deputy lord, I assumed you would regard this much as nothing at all.
Nor did the Deputy Lord of Camborer yield easily.
She, whose presence seemed about eighty percent opacity, smiled thinly.
—Deputy Lord!
—So, is it enough simply to ask the citizens’ opinion?
—Y-yes! The citizens’ opinion is what matters most, is it not! They will oppose it!
—Mage, can you relay the sounds coming from outside?
—Ah, without preparation that is rather difficult……
—I hear research funds are short.
—What is there I cannot do? I shall manage it somehow.
Wait—did that mage just commit the classic “research funds for anything” move……?
—There! It is done!
Fortunately, before my mood could turn truly strange, the mage of Camborer completed the sub-quest for research funds. The moment the words “I shall connect it now” left her lips, an enormous roar poured in.
—Kill Biryuho!
—What has that damned tiger ever done for us!
—The Deputy Lord spoke of the future she would give us! Rights are something we forge with our own hands!
—Spirit beast or animal, I don’t care! I want the blood-price of my child!
—Let us kill Biryuho! God or not, there is no reason we must be endlessly tested by injustice!
Thunderous cries filled the council chamber.
“Deputy Lord of Camborer, this is……”
—Word spread that Biryuho is the true culprit behind the beast calamity. I had no choice but to confirm it, and this is the result. Until now I have done my best to ignore their outcry for fear that hunting Biryuho might bring harm to other cities… but if what we have just heard is true, well. I no longer see why I should.
—Deputy Lord! For a deputy lord to allow such rumors to spread……!
—That is a matter for our city. It is not for you to concern yourself with.
—……!
—In any case, if Biryuho’s death will bring no harm to the East—no, if it is true that she is the one who has dried this land every year—then we of Camborer will hold that damned tiger cub responsible for every last injury we have suffered. There will be no compromise on this.
And through those shouts the Deputy Lord of Camborer declared with absolute clarity:
—We will fight for our rights.
To a modern person who had studied the history of struggle for dignity, freedom, and rights, the resonance could not help but set the heart ablaze.
Of course, the speaker was of the noble class—but we would set that aside for a moment. Just as a flaw does not stop jade from being jade, a slight tarnish upon the meaning does not render it worthless.
—…If the drought is truly Biryuho’s doing, and if killing her brings no great calamity, then our city will also consent.
—Lord of Bemyurhen!
—The famine that comes every year already claims dozens of soldiers. Those losses have piled up until they long since passed a thousand. A stitch in time saves nine; under these circumstances I will not yield.
—That is……
Once she opened the way, others began to reverse their stance as well.
Cities that suffered no harm from the drought remained skeptical, yet those within its sphere of influence quickly took Camborer’s heat into their own bodies.
“I had been holding this back because it is still unverified… yet I am always learning a move from you. I had intended only to gather cases from the West.”
At that moment the Archmage whispered softly. Because she never turned her gaze, anyone not standing close would have been hard-pressed to notice she was speaking to me.
“My thanks. Thanks to you, a path has opened.”
So the Archmage had been collecting cases from the West as well.
Well, she was no fool; she would have prepared at least one contingency for the ending that had been plain to see.
That she had never thought to ask Sangun of the Great Forest was unexpected, yet not so strange. Whether because she already knew so much, or because the Magic Tower was a repository of knowledge, the Archmage rarely sought knowledge outside the Tower. More precisely, she tended not even to consider that knowledge could be obtained elsewhere.
—But was that not the word of a descendant of Yukgui! There remains the possibility that the descendant’s thought differs from the truth……!
“Come now, do not be so hasty; hear this as well. I myself had something to say on the matter……”
At any rate, once the evidence she had gathered was added, the current flowed even more strongly in our direction.
According to the Archmage the western cases were still incompletely verified… yet the letter from Sangun supplied the missing credibility. The reverse was true as well.
—Ahem… i-if we are to kill Biryuho… how many troops must each of us commit……?
“That is……”
“Unnecessary.”
“I also… wait.”
And decisively, they would not even need to endure losses for the act of capturing Biryuho itself.
“A stinking beast like that? The time it takes tea to cool will suffice.”
I would be the one to take her down.
—Wh-who is that young man who has been speaking from the start……
—The Demon Knight. An adventurer of some renown in the northwest.
—An adventurer? Then a mere adventurer is now……
“He is also a companion chosen by the Hero.”
—…So that is why a mere companion of the Hero speaks with such swagger.
More importantly, which lord just dodged so cleanly? Maxed-out evasion maneuvers, I see.
—But he is not the Hero herself, and for a companion to be so confident……
“Um, I also……”
—When a demon leaks from the Demon Realm he hunts it to the ends of Hell and slays it; when one who turns the power meant to harm demons against humans appears, he severs the head without question and raises mountains of corpses.
Yet I could not locate the lord who had dodged, and the Inquisitor—whose words had been swallowed from the beginning—could not speak either.
One figure alone fixed his gaze precisely upon me and continued.
—His methods are cruel and show no mercy, yet he never cuts down the innocent, and in that one sees conviction. His obscure deeds are filled with questions and speculation, yet the deeds attributed to him alone are more than enough to warrant the word “hero.”
What was more, the moment our eyes met, he even smiled.
—Therefore, in the name of Osla, we dared bestow the title of “Knight” upon a mere adventurer.
His eyes narrowed into thin crescents until the pupils vanished. Atop his head sat triangular, flattened ears like those of a fox.
—It was during my time in Osla. Ah, of course the suggestion was not mine. I was only an apprentice knight then. Well, thanks to that I was sent out on practical training and saw your exploits with my own eyes.
For a moment my mind went blank.
Just now… what had he said he saw?
—I had always hoped we might meet someday, yet I never expected it would be at a moment like this. One never knows what the world will bring.
—In Osla… the title of Knight.
—Well, it is not important, is it? He does not seem to remember me at all. Still, at the very least… it should mean that this adventurer has the right to speak, no?
“…From the beginning he is one who took part in the subjugation of a Great Demon. For one who has slain a Great Demon to speak of Biryuho’s head is by no means arrogance.”
—True enough. I was meddling needlessly.
“I—I will also step forward!”
“What, talking about hunting Biryuho? Berserk will join too! Tiger hunt!!”
—Since even the Hero has shown her intent, there seems little more to say.
I barely managed to stop my eyes from blinking by reflex. Instead I bit the inside of my cheek without letting it show.
The Demon Knight’s past.
The bomb I had been desperately ignoring while spouting every excuse in the book was now striding forward without giving me any time to prepare.