The Made Monster's Answer
As the hood was torn away and the face beneath it revealed, Simon's pupils shook as though an earthquake had ripped through them.
It was a face Simon already knew—no, "knew" didn't even begin to cover it. He saw it at least once a day.
'Kajaan Edvalt...!'
Faded grey hair, the long scar running through his right eye, even those characteristically sharp, narrow-set eyes. It was Kajaan, without a doubt.
Simon could barely gather himself through the shock, but he forced his composure to hold and demanded an answer.
[Answer me. Are you the Priest?]
Kajaan wore a bored expression.
"Let me flip the question. Do I look like a Priest to you?"
Simon bit his lip.
[I'm not in the mood for jokes.]
"The only answer I can give you is obviously 'no.' Which means it all comes down to your judgment in the end. Kill me or spare me—do as you please."
Simon cooled his head and replayed the fight he'd just had with Kajaan in his mind.
At the same time, he recalled his battle with the Priest, back when he'd been with Camibarez.
The two men's combat styles were completely different. Kajaan had fought with rigorous Magic Combat techniques, while the Priest he'd encountered back then had relied mostly on Jet-Black magic.
Of course, it was possible they'd simply fought differently to deceive him.
But if Kajaan had been a master of Jet-Black magic from the start, he never would have ended up pinned down the way Simon had caught him now. For a deception, he'd fought far too seriously.
Beyond that—the particular air a person carried, their gait, their manner and habits. It wasn't hard to tell that the two were entirely different people.
And yet Simon still didn't lower the greatsword aimed at the man's throat.
[Answer me. What were you doing in the Forbidden Forest?]
Kajaan closed his eyes slowly.
"I was hunting the Priest who infiltrated Kizen."
Simon's mouth pressed into a flat line. It was the exact same objective he had.
"I was searching the Forbidden Forest, following the Priest's trail, when a strange woman claiming to be the Priest approached me. I picked a fight to interrogate her. Does that answer your question?"
[One last thing.]
Simon swallowed dryly and continued.
[Why are you chasing that Priest?]
"I took a commission. Normally the client's name is confidential, but—"
Kajaan glanced at the artifact necklace hanging around Simon's neck.
"You should be fine. The client is Lady Nephthys Archbold."
Shring.
Only then did Simon's greatsword come down.
-I've already delegated the investigation to a few reliable people under me. We're picking up clues little by little, too.
It lined up perfectly with what Nephthys had told him when they'd met at Lorraine's house.
Besides, Kajaan had gone so far as to pull a commission document bearing Nephthys's seal from his subspace and show it to him.
There didn't seem to be any reason left for doubt.
"By the way."
Kajaan scratched at the wound over his right eye.
"When did you get your hands on that magnificent skull helm? Simon Polentia."
[......]
Simon let out a light sigh and pulled Pier's skull off, sliding it back behind his neck.
"You noticed from the beginning?"
"Roughly."
Kajaan smirked.
"When you shouted 'Erze' at first, I realized it was your voice and went to help. But it didn't take me long to figure out you and that Erze woman were on the same side."
"......"
Erzsebet, arms crossed, was glaring fiercely in Kajaan's direction at that very moment.
"I engaged you because you might have been working with Efnel. But apparently not—if you were truly with them, you'd have cleanly severed the throat of a witness like me. And another thing."
Kajaan's gaze drifted once more toward the artifact on Simon's neck.
"A genuine article infused with Lady Nephthys's power. That's something no Priest could ever hope to imitate."
"What even is this thing?"
Simon asked, fidgeting with the necklace. Kajaan dropped heavily into the grass and pulled a potion from his subspace.
"You'll find out at the moment you truly 'experience death.' For now, just know that much."
With that, he began shedding his clothes and splashing the potion over his body in reckless amounts.
[Boy. If you mean to kill him, now is the only chance you'll get.]
Pier warned Simon through his mind. Simon's gaze had likewise settled on Kajaan's back.
[He has seen the Legion. If he starts yapping about it to the Kizen higher-ups, we'll have a problem.]
'...Leave it to me, Pier. It seems Kajaan is one of Lady Nephthys's people as well.'
Simon crouched down beside Kajaan and helped him work the potion into his wounds.
'Whoa, that's gotta hurt.'
The pitch-black potion Kajaan was using bubbled furiously on contact with flesh, sending up an enormous cloud of smoke. Simon could see the bleeding stop and the wounds forced shut by sheer brute strength.
And it hurt just as much as it looked. His face was hidden, but Kajaan's back kept shuddering again and again.
"...I'm sorry. Kajaan."
"It happens when you fight. No need to apologize."
The wounds closed in a hurry, but plenty of scars remained behind. Most of the marks covering his whole body had probably come from the same kind of treatment.
As the two of them wrapped bandages and treated their injuries, they exchanged stories in more detail.
And of everything, the most astonishing was this:
"That Thieves' Guild I know of... right?"
"Correct."
Kajaan was the son of the Thieves' Guild Association Head.
And one thing more: Kajaan was already a 'finished product.' At a mere eighteen, he was an undefeated monster who could pummel most professional necromancers bare-handed.
Granted, he had logged his first loss against Simon, a Legion Commander—but that was purely because the matchup had been catastrophically bad.
Yet Kajaan didn't call himself a genius. He called himself a 'made monster.' He hinted he had some inborn secret, but never revealed what it was.
In any case, Kajaan—whose level towered so far above any student's that he had no one left to learn from—had only enrolled at Kizen because of a commission from Nephthys.
-I believe there's a spy from Efnel inside Kizen.
Nephthys's commission had been an undercover investigation.
After formally enrolling at Kizen, Kajaan focused not on his classes but on the investigation.
That was why he slipped out of the dormitory every night and weekend, and why, during the day, Simon always found him buried under his blanket up to his crown, catching up on lost sleep.
The Priest, too, seemed to operate as a member of Kizen by day, but moved mostly at night to hold 'worship' and the like—and Kajaan likewise went out after dark to hunt the Priest, tearing through every corner of Roc Island.
"Hold on! You're a repeater, Kajaan—you were here at Kizen last year too!"
"Right. And I received Lady Nephthys's commission last year as well."
Simon rubbed his chin.
Which meant Nephthys had known the Priest spy had been inside Kizen since last year.
"Giving up information like that should have paid for his life, don't you think?"
Kajaan rose to his feet and turned back to Simon.
"Simon."
"Yes?"
"Whatever happens, I will resolve this case myself. I'll tell Lady Nephthys as much, so you stay out of it. It's far too dangerous for you."
Simon smiled serenely.
"It's fine. I'm stronger than you, Kajaan."
"......"
At those words, Kajaan's face stiffened. That expression he wore in that instant was so entertaining that Simon nearly burst out laughing.
"...I'll grant you that. But this isn't about who's stronger—it's about safety. You focus on your life at Kizen with your friends. Enjoy the happiest time of your life to the fullest."
"No."
Simon rose slowly to his feet as well, meeting Kajaan's eyes.
"That Priest wants my life—I've nearly died at his hands more than once. Above all, he hurt my friend, and dragged the rest of my team into danger too. I have my own reasons to hunt him down."
"......"
Kajaan let out a long sigh and ran a hand through his hair. He stood rooted in place, silently wrestling with it, before finally looking at Simon again.
"...If I were meant to talk you out of it, Lady Nephthys would have done it already."
"Pardon?"
"Fine. We have a clear, shared goal. Let's form a united front."
That was precisely the answer Simon had been hoping for.
"The undead you command looked quite serviceable. Keep covering the Forbidden Forest as you have been. And once a week—when that loud one isn't around—we'll pool whatever we've learned and start narrowing down the suspects for the Priest."
The "loud one" was presumably Rick. Simon chuckled quietly and nodded.
Night was deepening by the minute.
There was nothing to be gained from returning to Kizen any later than they already had, so the two walked toward the academy, still talking.
"Hmm, hmm."
Simon cleared his throat softly and stole a glance at Kajaan.
"Aren't you... going to ask about me?"
He half-expected a blunt 'What the hell was that thing?'—it almost would have been a relief. Kajaan kept his eyes fixed ahead as he answered.
"What do you think is the greatest risk an information guild operative carries?"
"...W-well."
Kajaan ruffled his own hair as he replied.
"Knowing."
Simon tilted his head, not following.
"They say ignorance is bliss. Anyone who works in an information guild is bound to come across dangerous knowledge sooner or later. But the more people who know a secret, the more anxious it makes them—and people start wanting to eliminate whatever's making them uneasy."
Kajaan let out a small sigh.
"For those of us who buy and sell information, the more we know, the more lives we have hanging over our heads. There's no reason to learn what you're better off not knowing. I intend to exercise my 'right not to know.'"
"Kajaan..."
Simon looked at him with something close to being moved.
[KHAHAHAHAHAHA!]
Suddenly Pier's booming laughter rang through Simon's head.
[Ha! At least the brute knows where his business ends! Let him be!]
Even Pier had stopped demanding Kajaan's death.
Back in Room 409, Rick fidgeted anxiously for no good reason.
'They did say to avoid the days the watchmen patrol, after all.'
Simon had gone down to Rochest. And today, Kajaan was nowhere to be seen either.
"Ugh—whatever. I did my part and told them."
Rick was rolling back and forth on his bed when—
SLAM!
Simon and Kajaan, hair still damp with towels wrapped around their heads as if they'd just stopped by the bath, walked into the dorm room side by side.
Rick's eyes went wide as saucers.
"Wh-what? Why are you two together...?"
It made no sense. It was a combination with zero chemistry.
Hadn't they acted like the other didn't even exist? Why did they come back together?
Kajaan climbed up to the second bunk as he always did and readied his blanket, while Simon gathered his clothes.
"Kajaan. I'll drop these off at the laundry room on my way."
"...Appreciated."
With that reply, Kajaan pulled the blanket up over his head. Simon slipped out of the room with a faint smile.
Click.
The door shut, and Rick—who had been staring blankly into the void of his loneliness—suddenly raised his voice.
"Wh-what is this?! Why did you two suddenly get close?!"
Rick shot up from where he sat.
"Hold on, Simon! What's going on—"
THWAP!
A pillow came flying and slammed roughly into Rick's face. He toppled over with a strangled "Ugh!"
"I told you not to make noise until I'm asleep."
At those unnerving eyes glaring out from beneath the blanket, Rick hastily restored the pillow to its proper place.
Kajaan took the pillow back into the blanket with him, and within minutes the sound of snoring filled the room.
'Ghk! Why am I the only one getting the exact same treatment as before!'
The single person even Rick's legendary sociability and people skills couldn't reach.
The truth was, Rick had been secretly hoping to get closer to Kajaan.