For Now (3)
“The mages are gathered in this place, so if you would wait just a moment.”
The two young lords headed off to one side the moment they entered the castle. At the end of that path lay a place that looked like a warehouse… and inside it was packed full of mages. Across from them rose a white hill of unknown origin, while the floor was covered in densely carved magic circles of equally uncertain purpose.
I had no idea what was going on.
“A moment of your attention. There is something I wish to request—”
“Huh? What is it, Young Lord… hup! The Demon Knight!”
“What? The Demon Knight!?”
“The owner of the corpse?!”
And why were those ones acting like that now? Were they already firing up their passion to turn me into a test subject?
“Wait, calm—!”
“Demon Kniiiiight!”
“Uwaaaah!”
I found myself wondering why the usually composed Young Lord Leon was falling apart like this today, and why the mages were acting the way they were. In the middle of that quiet contemplation I gave a light wave of my hand.
Magic spears materialized in midair and slammed into the ground right in front of me like a fence—kwagagagak. The mages barely managed to skid to a halt before them.
“Cross it, and you die.”
The mages who had screeched to a stop lined up in perfect order at a proper distance. Their coordination was almost that of a well-trained military unit.
“Demon Kniiiight!! Please, just give us a little of Biryuho’s corpse!”
“No! I have no shameless intention of taking it for free! I will pay a fair price, so hand it over to me!”
“Demon Knight!!!”
“Sir Knight!!”
Of course, the moment they had their distance they launched right back into their collective monologue. Having a safe gap made their words a little easier to understand, at least.
So I now knew their interest wasn’t actually in me. That was a relief. A relief, and yet…
Why were they looking for Biryuho’s body from me?
Without meaning to, I glanced at the two young lords.
“Ah, you haven’t received word yet?”
Just then the Young Lord of Ednium was being scooped up in a princess carry by the Young Lord of Camborer after she had kicked the mages aside.
“Well, the parts the demons took could not be helped, but the remaining corpse of Biryuho has been assigned entirely to the Demon Knight.”
The Young Lord of Ednium’s face was bright red, yet he still delivered a thorough answer. Thanks to that I had a better grasp of the situation, even if the awkwardness hadn’t completely faded.
Of course it hadn’t. Hadn’t the invaders taken the whole of Biryuho’s carcass?
And if anything was left, why give it only to me? If we were counting raid shares, there were others who deserved a cut, weren’t there?
“Every person who took part in the subjugation declared themselves unqualified and renounced their rights. Thus the whole of it has gone to the Demon Knight, who contributed the greatest merit.”
If I had any luck at all, it was that the Young Lord of Camborer was a sharp-eyed person. Without her I would have been left to guess from the atmosphere alone.
“For reference, the corpse is over there, and thanks to the Archmage personally laying magic upon it, no one but the Demon Knight can approach the interior.”
No wonder a warehouse that looked like nothing special was swarming with mages. It was all because of Biryuho’s remains.
“Hurrrk, please, just one hair!”
“Sir Kniiiiight!!”
On a separate note, the Archmage was a truly wise man.
Magic that let no one but me draw near. Without that, by now Biryuho’s carcass would have been stripped of fur one hair at a time until it was left completely naked.
Chiiiiis!
Well, even if that had happened it wouldn’t have meant much.
“M-my hand!”
“Are you all right?”
I stared blankly at the half-palm glove that had crumpled under the heat, and at the bare patch of palm it no longer covered.
Burn marks had been seared into the skin, as expected. Proof that I could never make use of this thing.
The temple had purified everything again, it seemed… Of course I could force it to corrupt so I could use it, but I felt no real need.
After all, most of it was just flesh and organs. What meaning could those have? I was neither a monster-eating chef nor an alchemist.
There were bones and hide as well, but… well. If I wanted to make a weapon from bone I would have to carve a single solid piece. Could a bone large enough for a longsword even come out of that thing?
And the hide? At best it would make clothing of some sort.
As for clothes… setting aside whether white-tiger-hide armor even fit the concept, they tore and wore out far too often to be worth anything.
My experiences so far already proved that much. I bought new clothes now and then just to escape the one-outfit-gentleman lifestyle, yet nothing but sleepwear ever lasted a week.
This wouldn’t be much different. Ordinary mobs were one thing, but bosses would shred it easily.
Besides, I rarely took hits from anything but bosses. My record showed it: outside of bosses I had only been seriously wounded twice—once in the Tatara sewers and once by the waterfall in the Great Forest.
It felt a little unfair that after all that suffering I still hadn’t gotten a single personal drop, yet at this point I wasn’t sure it even mattered.
“Which parts are valuable?”
That was the truth of it, wasn’t it? Changing my gear wouldn’t meaningfully change anything.
“Pardon?”
“For now the claws and the tail…”
So the conclusion I could reach was only one.
Sell it. My wallet had grown thin lately; I needed something like this to refill it.
Seogeok!
Of course I would pay the young lords a proper price first.
“Hup!”
“D-damage—”
With the sword I always carried I severed a front paw. I had no idea how much it would fetch, but I trusted it would be worth at least a million gold.
“There.”
“……!”
My hand tossed the front paw toward the Young Lord of Camborer. I had completely forgotten she was still holding the Young Lord of Ednium.
I realized it a moment later and thought ah—
Kung!
“Urgh!”
“Waaah!”
The Young Lord of Camborer did not hesitate for a second; she flung the Young Lord of Ednium into the crowd of mages and caught the tiger’s foreleg.
True to the size of a giant tiger’s paw, it almost completely hid her from view.
“…Is it truly all right for me to accept this?”
“I do not leave debts. Fulfill your task.”
Strictly speaking, the one connecting me to the Lord of Belgart was Ednium… but the two of them were lovers. The kind of people who would still go to the rescue even knowing their lives were in danger. Surely this wouldn’t drive a wedge between them.
“I shall never forget this grace.”
“Unnecessary.”
And… I hadn’t given it solely as a middleman’s fee for the lord in the first place. Victims still remained; this was meant as a subsidy for them as well. It wouldn’t be an enormous sum, but still.
…Even so I couldn’t hand over everything. I had uses for it now too. Helping others only came after I had looked after myself first. Right?
“Ah, right. You lot over there. I have one request.”
Anyway, the young lord properly carried out the reason she had brought me here. It wasn’t difficult at all.
The moment she waved the tiger’s foreleg and said, “Anyone who will help me contact the other cities,” volunteers formed a line.
The abandoned Young Lord of Ednium’s tearful expression was merely a side note.
“Um, my lord… my lord?”
Meanwhile, rewinding the clock a little to the moment the Demon Knight had just set off for the castle warehouse with the two young lords.
Deathbringer, carrying a longsword prepared as both apology and gift—since the Demon Knight had broken another sword again—made his way to the Demon Knight’s private room. It was a blade the Archmage had helped fund and that the Inquisitor and Berserk had chosen with a careful eye.
“Why is there no… presence…”
Yet for some reason he could sense no presence inside the room. It was thoroughly unnerving.
“Um, my lord, I’m coming in?”
The mere fact of no presence filled his head with every possible thought. Deathbringer hurriedly opened the door and stepped inside.
“G-gone…”
The bedding was rumpled on the side next to the pillow, and clothes had vanished from the hangers. Anyone could see the master had left; that scene spread before his eyes.
“Archmage!”
He headed straight for the dining hall, hoping the man might still be there.
“…The Demon Knight has vanished, you say!?”
He was not. After Deathbringer, the Archmage’s expression darkened as well. Anyone would react the same way if someone who had only woken after eleven days simply disappeared without a word.
Especially when the Demon Knight these days…
“Have you checked the baths? He… rather enjoys washing, does he not?”
“Ah, I haven’t been there yet. If anywhere, then yes…”
The Archmage thought of the man whose words had grown noticeably fewer ever since the subjugation of the Great Demon Moby Dick.
He had never been especially talkative to begin with, yet there was a feeling to it all the same.
Simply being distant, and having a vast canyon between that distance, were two different things.
“Ah, Archmage. I was just looking for… yes? If you mean the knight, he finished bathing quite a while ago and left.”
But concentrating on that point could wait; finding the missing man came first. The Archmage and Deathbringer both drooped their heads at the words of the priestess who had been cleaning the baths.
The guess had been correct, yet far too late.
“Right. Um, Archmage.”
“I’m not sure whether I should say this, but I feel it would be better if I did.”
“What is it?”
“There was a faint bloodstain on the towel the Demon Knight used. If an old wound has reopened…”
“…Thank you for telling me.”
Worse, they had not only failed to learn his next destination—they had only piled more worry upon themselves. They trudged away down that corridor.
“…So my lord really does find me awkward, after all?”
“What reason would he have to find you awkward?”
“Because I… contracted with a demon…”
“It was a temporary contract, and a forced one at that. More importantly, it has been completely lifted now. The restrictions are gone as well.”
“That’s true, but… my lord still hasn’t heard that. Even before we caught Biryuho he was already avoiding talking to me.”
The Archmage fell silent for a moment at Deathbringer’s words. It was true that during the six days spent searching for Biryuho before the subjugation, the Demon Knight had conspicuously avoided Deathbringer.
And not only him. If one counted the number of times the Inquisitor or even she herself had exchanged words with the Demon Knight, it could be tallied on one hand.
That truly was strange. No matter how taciturn the Demon Knight was, he usually listened carefully at least to the Archmage’s words.
“…At that time he was merely confused, I expect.”
Yet she could not show it. The Archmage lamented how, instead of bonds deepening, only conflict kept accumulating, and carefully arranged a kindly expression.
“A person’s values do not change so easily, do they?”
“…….”
“Rather than focusing on the fact that he avoided conversation with you, I believe we should focus on the fact that he still kept you alive even while so confused.”
“……!”
“You know it yourself. If he truly regarded you as worthless, he would have cut you down with a single stroke.”
“…That’s true. He always said he would leave me behind the moment I became a hindrance, yet in reality he never once…”
“He is a man who understands little of emotion, who never had the chance to learn, and who never sought to understand it himself.”
Fortunately the young man’s misunderstanding was something she could unravel. The Archmage gently laid out everything she had sensed.
“Indeed—if one’s goal is to face demons alone until the moment of death, what value could emotion hold for him? Simply sharpening anger and hatred toward demons would be enough.”
“That’s… true.”
“That is why he cannot be honest. He may not even understand his own emotions. He has never experienced them, nor been taught.”
“…….”
“So do not take it too deeply to heart. Hatred and aversion are still emotions that arise because one is aware. What is truly frightening is indifference.”
“…Is that from personal experience, Mage?”
“Something similar.”
She watched the priestess who had promised to come running the moment she learned the Demon Knight’s whereabouts now racing toward them.
“In my case, it was love.”
“Even if it is an imposition, if the conversation is not one that must be held immediately, would you grant thirty minutes? That was the reply.”
“I will wait.”
“Yes.”
Judging by every experience so far, the chance of departing today had already converged endlessly toward zero. So it did not matter how long it took.
Thus, with a tight-lipped and highly skilled mage standing before me, I closed my eyes. Perhaps because the situation had become one I could no longer avoid.
The tangled feelings had largely settled, and the questions I needed to ask rose calmly to the surface.
When had he first seen me? What did it mean that my obscure tracks were full of questions and speculation? When had he first recognized the existence of the Demon Knight?
And what had the Demon Knight of that past looked like?
Truly, there were many questions to ask.
“The connection is established!”
“Um, I will speak first.”
And at last the line connected. Since the call had been made in the young lord’s name, the Young Lord of Ednium stepped forward first.
—Well now, Young Lord of Ednium. I heard the news that you were safely rescued. Truly a blessing for Ednium.
“Thank you, Lord of Belgart.”
—Yet this sudden contact is…? Do you perhaps need some form of aid?
“Aid… is a somewhat awkward word for the request I have.”
He explained in an orderly fashion that I had asked him to arrange a meeting.
Whether because I was a companion of the Hero, or because of the deeds I had accomplished, or because of the Demon Knight’s past records—
The Lord of Belgart readily accepted the conversation.
“Then I shall take my leave.”
Anticipating heavy talk, the young lord hastily left the room.
—It is an honor to meet you properly. I am Julian, Lord of Belgart. Truthfully I had hoped for a chance to speak with you properly, yet I never expected you would request it first. I am delighted.
At any rate, the Lord of Belgart seemed by nature not to stand much on ceremony.
That was actually better. It would make it easier to obtain what I wanted.
—So… the reason you requested this conversation?
“I have things I wish to ask.”
I whispered the words one by one, chewing them carefully, as if exhaling a sigh or letting out a scream.
“The words you spoke at the conference. I wish to hear the story of that time in greater detail.”
—Uh… that was all of it, though? You know it yourself, don’t you?
“I have no memory of that time.”
—Oh……
I had considered circling around the question while pretending to remember, but the information that would yield was limited. So I decided to shift direction a little.
The information I could gain this way was more valuable to me than the risk of breaking character.
—The reason is……
“I do not believe this is a question that requires me to recount personal history before an answer can be given.”
—Well, true enough.
Julian, Lord of Belgart, laughed awkwardly.
—But truly, it is nothing special. A demon appeared at the place where we had gone for live combat practice, and while the apprentice knights and instructors were being slaughtered by that demon, you appeared and beheaded it. That is all.
“What did I look like then?”
—Uh, appearance?
Since only voices were transmitted, I could not see the other party’s face, yet I could feel Julian growing a little flustered.
—Well, it is not something one should say to the person himself, but… honestly, it was a bit… much, wasn’t it?
“Precisely.”
—Yes, you looked rather like a madman. Long hair all disheveled, face barely visible under clothes and hair, whole body soaked and filthy with bloodstains, and crucially, pitch-black magic energy was surging and blazing over your entire body like flames……
“The clothes. What of the attire?”
—Clothes……? I don’t remember well… For the record it is not because I am an idiot; most of your body was covered by a filthy, tattered cloak. The distance was quite far as well.
“You could not see anything of the inside at all?”
—…Hmm hmm. Ah, it might have been the sort of leather armor that adventurers commonly wear… now that I think about it.
At the same time I, too, was thrown into confusion.
The past appearance of the Demon Knight that Julian described was remarkably similar to the official Demon Knight design.
In other words, not the custom appearance I had created, but the default look the system gave out. Untamed long hair, a shabby cloak, leather armor and the like.
“…Did you see the hair color?”
—Hair color? Well? As I said, the distance was too great… It was the same as now, wasn’t it? Unless you used dye.
“Conversation.”
—We never managed any, of course. After beheading the demon in a single stroke you ignored every shout we made and simply went your way. You never even showed your face at the honorary investiture. You do not remember this either?
I had only been curious whether I had been wearing the same equipment then as now. That was why I had asked; I never expected this kind of answer.
“…When was that?”
—Yep. I will not ask. More importantly, you asked when?
Yet aside from the complicated feelings, questions still remained.
I asked when the incident had occurred.
I had already kept in mind that the Demon Knight’s renown had spread even before I began my activities, meaning the Demon Knight had existed before I started the game… but exactly how many years ago was fairly important information.
After all, only then could I be certain of the period in which I had lost my memories, and know the scope of what needed investigation.
—That year my father passed away, so… two years ago. Yes, two years ago.
Yet it had not been as long ago as I had thought. Only two years?
…According to the official setting, the Demon Knight should have been active under that name for at least five years or more, should he not?
My head grew complicated.