Tell Me
Anyway, it’s blocking this again....
I must have woken to the sensation of someone covering my eyes and ears. Suddenly I found myself talking at length with a man who was clearly someone of power. I hadn’t come away empty-handed, but it was still thoroughly disorienting.
“...You will be treated with a certain measure of respect.”
“Yes.”
Even as the conversation ended, little had changed. The man with real authority had left, but now I was alone with a guard. Given our respective positions, the air between us turned oddly awkward.
“Hah...”
Yet for me right now, being left with a stranger was far from the biggest problem.
Imprisonment and employment. Freedom and a trial. It was a trial I had never imagined, yet one I somehow had to scheme my way through.
But how, exactly?
I had claimed to be a mage, yet that had been nothing more than a bluff and a fraud that exploited others’ ignorance. I possessed none of the actual knowledge.
If a real mage tested the depth of my learning, there was no way I would pass.
No—failing alone would almost be preferable. If they simply judged me lacking in skill, the matter would end with me not being hired.
But if the questioning exposed the truth that I was a fake mage? If a wanted notice went out for the crime of daring to deceive them?
That would be ruin. The future that came so easily to mind made me take off my glasses and scrub my dry face for a moment.
I could just give up and stay locked in the guardhouse. But then I wouldn’t be able to investigate. And with the time limit on my Disguise Skill, the odds of having to bolt halfway through were high.
On the opposite side of every choice I could not bring myself to make waited a similar end.
“......”
No good answers either way.
I leaned back against the headboard of the bed and surveyed the hopeless situation. The pillow I was using as a cushion must have been someone’s old one; the give wasn’t half bad. It felt like a product stuffed full of fresh straw rather than cotton.
Not that it offered much comfort when the thought of what lay ahead made my chest tighten until I could barely breathe.
“Um...”
Come to think of it, where exactly was I? Setting the unsolvable choices aside for a moment, I glanced at the guard.
Munmunt’s military discipline seemed extremely strict; the soldier maintained a ramrod-straight posture and a permanently stern expression. His eyes held both the solemnity unique to soldiers and the dead-fish stare unique to office workers.
“Soldier, would it be possible to get a little water...?”
Even so, it was better to try talking to someone like that.
I kept my voice as quiet and as polite as possible so as not to ruffle him. A person who had just woken looking for water was hardly unusual, so there was no reason for the request itself to seem suspicious.
I waited meekly for his reaction.
“At present, drinking water is classified as a strategic resource and is under control. I do not have the authority to provide any.”
“Ah...”
The answer that came back was one I had not quite expected.
I was a little taken aback. I knew water was important on a battlefield, but I had not realized they managed it so tightly that they would not even spare a cup for a patient.
Or was I simply in a position that did not warrant that much consideration? I still knew too little about the state of the fortress to say.
I blinked slowly.
“I see. I’m sorry, I didn’t know. It was a needless request.”
“It’s fine.”
“Well then... would it be all right if I drank the water I originally had with me?”
Beyond the goal of starting a conversation, my throat was actually a little dry. I made the careful request to wet it.
The soldier’s eyes rolled once.
“...If you agree to let me take it out of the bag for you, I believe I can permit that much.”
Was it because I was posing as a mage? He was wary even of me touching my own bag alone. It felt rather sour.
The mages I knew were more fanatics than threats. I didn’t think this much caution was necessary.
“That’s fine.”
Of course, depending on one’s perspective, fanaticism itself could feel threatening. With a complicated feeling I nodded. Everything in the bag was the sort of thing I wouldn’t mind losing, so the consent was easy.
Even the leg-bag inventory... I had already transferred it into the subspace of the bracelet when I left the village.
The rest could be stolen for all I cared. I simply watched the soldier move.
“This?”
“Yes.”
Perhaps because the contents were so sparse, he found the water quickly. As though preparing for any contingency, he poured it into a cup and checked it thoroughly right to the end. Truly meticulous.
“Thank you for your cooperation. Take it.”
Gulp. The Adam’s apple of the man handing over the waterskin bobbed unusually large.
“......”
“......?”
Even when I tipped the mouth of the waterskin and took about two swallows, it was the same. A gaze so clear it was almost burdensome fixed on me.
It was less that he was focusing on me as a person and more that his eyes were locked on the waterskin and the water coming out of it.
“...Would you like some?”
“Pardon?”
Seeing him stare with such fervor, it seemed he was thirsty as well... Well, if the water control didn’t apply only to me, then the soldier wouldn’t have been able to drink as he pleased either.
And human beings were strange animals who craved more intensely the more something was forbidden.
“There isn’t much left, but it should be enough to wet your throat.”
The way he couldn’t fully hide his thirst suggested he wasn’t a perfect by-the-book type. In that case, maybe I could work on him a little with this.
I held out the waterskin that still held a little under half. After a moment’s hesitation the soldier finally gave in. The temptation must have been too strong to shake off.
“Th-thank you.”
“Not at all. Ah, you can finish it if you like.”
With that additional permission, the soldier’s face brightened noticeably. He began gulping the water down in a hurry.
“...You must have been really thirsty.”
“Yes... a bit.”
I tossed the instantly emptied pouch back into the bag and leaned against the headboard again. Perhaps because the kindness of water had passed between us, the soldier’s eyes when he looked at me had softened considerably.
“I didn’t realize Munmunt was such a strict city. Controlling even drinking water this meticulously...”
“Ah... that’s a misunderstanding. It’s not normally like this.”
“Oh, it isn’t?”
“No.”
At my words the soldier rolled his eyes sideways.
“This is the first time drinking water has been controlled.”
The voice that offered me the truth carried a slight note of discontent. It wasn’t the sort of grumbling he was deliberately showing; rather, resentment at being supervised had slipped out before he himself noticed.
“I see... Why do you suppose such an order suddenly came down?”
This might be worth probing a little.
I lowered my brows as though pitying the soldier’s situation and voiced the question as though criticizing the decision of those above him.
“I... don’t really know. From above they only tell us to endure even if our throats are dry and our stomachs empty...”
The soldier eagerly picked up my agreement. Feeling understood and even defended seemed to give him a bit more courage. A little more of his complaint spilled out.
“It would be nice if they at least told us the reason. The military really is strict, isn’t it?”
“Well, yeah. Ours is the job of doing whatever we’re told...”
It was fortunate that the guard assigned to me was the kind of person who would give some sort of answer when poked. If I had been stuck with a completely closed-off type, I wouldn’t even have gotten this scrap of information.
I gave thanks for that fact, offered the soldier a little more comfort, and carefully considered my next question. Any sensitive question would send the hard-won favorability plummeting, so the review was extremely cautious.
“Um... Mage.”
And that took a little time. Enough that he spoke first before I could choose a question.
“Yes.”
Of course, the fact that the soldier was asking something himself was not a bad sign. It meant the hurdles in his heart had lowered enough for him to put a question to me, at least.
The only problem was what he was about to ask...
Hoping he would not ask about magic, I put on a smile calculated to buy a person’s trust. The soldier’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed dryly.
“The higher-ups say it’s something we just have to endure, but... I’m still a little uneasy. Is it really all right for us to just sit still like this?”
“...May I ask exactly which part makes you uneasy?”
“Ah, well...”
Thank heavens it was not a question about magic. I made my tone even gentler so he could feel at ease.
“It’s not just me—my comrades are all saying they’re hungry and thirsty too... And from what the others say, it’s not only the soldiers; the citizens are in the exact same situation...”
“I see.”
Meanwhile, it wasn’t only this man complaining of thirst and hunger? Even the citizens? I clenched my hands at the suddenly inflated scale of the problem.
Thinking of how Licha had been as well, this did not seem like an ordinary issue.
“So people started saying maybe a demon put a curse on the whole city. Nobody knows whether it’s true or not, and if we asked our superiors we’d probably get our heads bitten off, so for now we’re just keeping it quiet among ourselves...”
While I fought to keep my face from stiffening, the soldier’s expression grew a little gloomy.
“You’re a mage, so you must have studied more than I have. That’s why I wondered if you might know something about this situation, and I asked. Is this really a demon’s doing?”
It was the face of a man who was afraid because he did not understand the situation unfolding around him, and who was only that afraid because he did not fully understand it.
I’m screwed. My mouth snapped shut by reflex, but I forced both corners of my lips upward to hide the fluster.
“Well... I’m called a mage, but my learning isn’t that deep. And I know even less about demons...”
Damn it, if this isn’t a demon’s fault then whose is it? Even if I couldn’t pin the exact demon, I could do a forward roll, a back roll, and a plank and still be certain that the demonic race itself was the culprit of this kind of incident.
“So I don’t think I can say ‘this is exactly it.’”
But if I said that outright and the story spread among the soldiers, and morale dropped because of it, then I would be the one who got smashed.
With that thought I hurriedly ran my mouth. That the other party was already half-convinced of the cause of this affair was not particularly important. This was the kind of problem no one but a newborn could fail to grasp.
“But there is one thing I believe I can tell you.”
Even though he knew the correct answer, the soldier had asked me in order to look away from it, and the only choice I could make here was of course to play along.
“However hard it may be, this fortress will be the one that wins. People say demons are swarming outside, but in truth the siege lines were so weak that even a half-baked mage like me could slip through.”
I smiled as firmly as I could so the soldier might at least find some comfort for his heart.
“I can’t tell whether they mean to advance or not.”
“Ha, you think those bastards will advance right away? Leave them like this for a week and they’ll collapse on their own.”
“...Young Lord.”
Gunter waved a hand at his escort knight’s words. “I misspoke.” It was not a sincere apology. He could not bring himself to think that what he had just said was wrong.
“If the Lord were here, he would have given you an earful.”
“I know. Whether true or false, he would have ranted and raved that one must never make remarks that could unsettle the soldiers.”
“Young Lord.”
“I don’t do this in front of the old man. Look the other way for once.”
“...You must not use that sort of word for your father.”
“Ha. Father? Did I have a father? How strange. The one who played father to me seems to have already died.”
“Young Lord...!”
“Sir Sapphire, I know every bit of your scolding is for my sake. But please, drop this subject. I, damn it, I really hate that old man.”
“......”
Around that point, he suddenly found himself missing Atya desperately.
If she had been here she would not have rebuked him; she would have joined in cursing their parents.
Alya was the same. The prickly but warm-hearted second child would have lent him a shoulder instead of agreeing with the insults against their lord.
Pasha, who was a few years younger, or Linya, who was still far too young to consult, would have been a comfort simply by existing.
“...So from now on just don’t bring this topic up in the first place. It’s a subject that ruins both our moods.”
But they were gone. The people who had let him breathe had disappeared.
Gunter pressed his throbbing forehead alone. The empty stomach and parched throat felt less irritating than simply hollow. The fast had clearly gone on too long.
“...I see Sir Emerald over there.”
“Damn it, why again.”
“Young Lord...”
In that state, even the face he least wanted to see made him more unpleasant. Gunter frowned as he watched the knights gifted in command and control murmuring with Emerald atop the wall.
Having spotted them, he had no choice but to speak; that alone was melancholy enough.
“...We meet again. This does not seem to be Sir Emerald’s patrol hour.”
“I have little intention of resting while the enemy is right in front of us.”
“...I can only admire your devotion. Still, I hope you will remember that looking after one’s own condition is also a knight’s virtue.”
“Do not worry, Young Lord. The problem you are thinking of will not occur.”
He talks well enough. Gunter clenched and unclenched his fist for no good reason as he watched the emerald knight even share out his own water among the soldiers.
On the surface there was nothing to criticize, and the Chief Knight was enthusiastic about the city’s affairs, yet Gunter could not understand why he found the man so distasteful.
“...Then that is fine. Please do not overdo it. The rest of you, well done as well.”
“Yes, sir!”
Still, he refrained from picking a fight. Gunter moved on with thoughts his escort knight would have denied if he had heard them.
“We’ve checked everything atop the wall, so let us return to the fortress.”
“...Yes.”
He still had work left.
“What else was there...”
Gunter tallied what he had done and what remained to be done.
Checking the soldiers’ condition, overseeing whether food distribution was proceeding normally, inspecting the safety of the food stores and water sources, confirming public sentiment and morale among the citizens... Roughly speaking, the major items seemed finished. Of course, the moment he returned to the fortress more work would appear.
Deciding punishments for those who had rioted during distribution, for instance, or calculating how long they could hold out based on the surveyed food stocks.
“Ah. I was also supposed to go see the mage.”
That was not all. Gunter recalled the guest he had stashed in the lodging near the mage tower and let out a long sigh.
“...I’ll go see the mage first.”
He was working without even having eaten dinner, yet somehow there was still no end in sight. Well, when had there ever been?
Gunter mocked himself thus and led his escort knight toward the lodging where the guest stayed.
“While I speak with him, go eat something at least.”
“I will escort you.”
“I would prefer you remember that you are one of the Chief Knights before you are my escort. Go eat.”
“...Please do not go in before I return.”
“I understand, so hurry up and go.”
Even after he had shaken off the escort knight, the mage’s lodging looked the same as always. Despite the daily cleaning, crumpled paper littered the corridor, and every so often the screams of mages could be heard.
“Bunch of lunatics, every one of them.”
Why scream when all they do is research? Gunter shook his head at the mages’ madness and headed for one of the doors.
“Do you know who Atya is?”
But a voice that had leaked, however faintly, from farther down the corridor made him stop in his tracks.
“The soldier who came with me this far, and that important person earlier as well. They both mistook me for someone named Atya.”
“Uh, uh...”
“If you don’t know, it can’t be helped.”
“I’m sorry, that nickname is simply too common...”
And then he put strength back into his legs. Bang. A hand that had not even knocked flung the door open roughly.
“Huk, Young L—”
“Atya is a dead friend of mine.”
Calm green eyes that belonged neither to Atya, nor Alya, nor Pasha, nor Linya looked back at him.
“Do you want to hear the story?”
If he were to describe them a little further, they looked like the eyes of a priest hearing confession.
“Yes. Please tell me.”