The Godfather's Shadow
‘Wh-... Akalion got stolen?’
The Priest felt like she might collapse where she stood.
Divine Beasts were the most extraordinary living creatures in the world, feeding on morning dew and divinity. They were notoriously picky about their food—'divinity', that is—and in rare cases, some had even been known to be seduced by another Priest's divinity and attempt to switch owners. There was a running joke among Divine Beast Studies majors, in fact, that a major's first and greatest asset wasn't the ability to handle a Divine Beast, nor the skill to care for one, but simply the quality of the 'divinity' she had to offer.
Yet she had kept Akalion in check at Efnel, a place where only the elite among elites gathered, and she'd believed he would stay loyal forevermore.
And now he'd been stolen?
By a necromancer, of all people?
"Get him!"
The moment the boy gave the command, Akalion, the bear-shaped Divine Beast, charged at the Priest with terrifying speed.
"Akaliooon! How could you do this to me!"
the Priest screamed, more wail than shout.
The first time she'd fed him, the outings they'd taken together when Akalion had been startled by wild animals, the joy they'd shared after felling a monster for the first time—it all swept past her like a panorama.
‘My Akalion would never do this! He's facing a vile necromancer! He must be under some kind of curse! B-but can curses even affect Divine Beasts? Whatever! I just have to beat that necromancer and take Akalion back!’
Having barely salvaged her composure, the Priest thrust out her arm in a hurry. She'd lost her strongest Divine Beast, but two still remained to her.
"Zeki, block him!"
A beast that looked like a boulder rushed in front of her, crouched low, and braced into a defensive stance.
Akalion didn't slow for an instant. He barreled straight into the rock-beast and sent it flying into the sky.
"Zekiiiii!"
The Priest burst into tears. With the obstacle cleared away, Akalion charged on and slammed into the Priest herself. She flew with a shriek of pain, tumbling down the slope of a sheer cliff.
-Kreeee!
The last Divine Beast she had left, a flying type, dove down the cliff after her.
Simon scratched his head with a somewhat dazed expression.
‘I can't believe that actually worked.’
Ran, the baby white dragon that Lethe had raised, had grown fond of Simon too, but he'd never imagined he'd be able to command a Divine Beast Studies major's Divine Beast outright.
Tap, tap.
Then Akalion came trotting back to Simon with a light, graceful gait. He was even carrying the sub-space badge he'd emerged from earlier clamped in his mouth, and he plopped down on his haunches and wagged his tail furiously, as if asking for praise.
"...G-good boy."
Simon gave an awkward laugh and patted Akalion's head. The Divine Beast let out a happy chuckle of a sound.
"So, will you go back now? Your owner must be pretty furious."
Simon peeled the divinity clinging to Akalion's body away and turned his back on him.
And Akalion, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, fell in beside him.
"?"
Simon quickened his pace, and Akalion bounded along on all fours to keep up.
"??"
Simon blinked at the Divine Beast. Akalion licked Simon's cheek with long, sloppy strokes of his tongue, tail still wagging.
"You're really following me?"
Simon was dumbfounded. This Divine Beast showed absolutely no intention of leaving.
‘...S-so this was even possible.’
A helpless laugh escaped him. Honestly, his conscience stung a little, too.
Simon sent his sincere sympathies to the Priest, who was presumably unconscious somewhere down the steep hillside.
"...Sorry is sorry, though."
Simon grinned slyly and climbed onto Akalion's back.
"Guess this is how it's going to be, then. Looking forward to working with you, Akalion!"
-Uung! Uuu!
Simon was not the type to let a golden opportunity slip away on a guilty conscience.
Acquiring a Divine Beast on a Neutral Zone dispatch had been completely unexpected, but with this, Simon now had the standing to study Divine Beast Studies himself.
Akalion broke into a run with Simon on his back.
His other teammates—and Sasha—were what worried him.
Cutting swiftly through the forest on Akalion's back, Simon soon caught a familiar voice.
"You're okay, right? Please, open your eyes!"
It was Meilin's voice. Simon thumped on Akalion's back.
"Head toward the voice."
-Uuung! Uuu!
Before long, Meilin came into view.
She was crouched in front of a fallen girl, shouting something at the top of her lungs. And the girl who had lost consciousness was none other than—
"Cami!"
Simon leapt off Akalion and ran over. Meilin glanced back, saw Akalion, and shrieked a strangled ‘Hueek!’ as she scooted backward on the ground.
"Wh-wh-wh-what is that?! A monster?!"
"Found him in the forest."
Having fobbed her off with that, Simon examined Camibarez's condition.
"Cami! Are you okay?"
Then her eyelids trembled faintly, and she opened her eyes with a shallow groan. She looked utterly exhausted and haggard. The moment she saw Simon's face, tears came flooding out.
"...I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"
"Wh-why? What happened?"
"I couldn't... protect Sasha."
Here is what Camibarez told him.
She had fought and defeated an Efnel girl who appeared to be a Protection Studies major. Simon had captured three on his own, which meant, all told, they'd won against all four of the Efnel students.
But.
"A man came and took Sasha."
"A man?"
When Simon had first spotted the Priest formation, he remembered the lone adult male standing among the girls.
"He was grown, with sort of an unusual hair color, right? Orange hair..."
"Th-that's right."
Camibarez had just finished off one Priest and was running on empty when the orange-haired man had suddenly appeared and attacked.
He'd chased after Dick and Seywir first, but realizing they were illusions, he'd immediately turned back and come after Camibarez instead.
And this man was far stronger than the Efnel students. Camibarez, already drained to the dregs, hadn't lasted long.
"And then Sasha said something to him."
Camibarez continued in a trembling voice.
She called him... 'Godfather'."
"!"
Simon's eyes went wide.
Sasha was an orphan with no family, but she'd mentioned that this 'godfather' visited her house from time to time.
‘So that man was her godfather. And a Priest, no less.’
A godfather rescuing Sasha from being abducted by necromancers. If that was the story, it made sense.
But accepting it that easily left an unpleasant taste. Simon thought of the drugs and the syringe he'd seen in Sasha's house.
If that had been the godfather's doing...
"I saw it."
Then Camibarez spoke again, voice shaking.
"Sasha was... afraid of that 'godfather'."
"Afraid of him?"
"Yes. But she still resisted, saying she wanted to stay with me. So the godfather knocked her out and carried her away."
Meilin, who had been listening, frowned.
"That can wait. First, we get out of this forest. We need to meet up with Dick and Agent Seywir and hear what they have to say."
Simon agreed and looked up.
The night had slipped away at some point, and dawn was breaking.
Once out of the forest, the three of them safely rejoined Dick and Seywir.
"Dick! You okay?"
"Uh, yeah. Apart from nearly dying."
Dick said it with a bitter smile. Long bandages were wound around his head and shoulders.
"Tch, that orange-haired guy is seriously strong. I couldn't even last a minute."
Just as Simon had suspected, Sasha's godfather had been tailing Dick and Seywir from the start. But mid-fight he'd apparently figured out that the carriages were entirely Seywir's illusions, cut off his attack, and hurriedly turned tail.
"And over here, we've got someone who got knocked out cold by white magic."
Dick pointed at Seywir, sprawled on the ground. His body was trembling violently, as if in convulsions.
Meilin pressed a hand to her forehead and scowled.
"Ugh. Use-LESS! If we'd had even one actual professional necromancer on our side from the start, we never would've been pushed around like this! We won every single engagement between students, if you'll recall. This is so unfair!"
Camibarez, still riding on Simon's back, poked her head out and looked at them blankly.
"S-so then... did we fail the mission?"
Dick nodded and let out a low sigh.
"I'd say so. We lost the objective, so the disciplinary committee's a sure thing. If our luck's bad, we might all be leaving Kizen."
At that, tears welled up in Camibarez's eyes, and Meilin flung her arms out and shouted.
"Th-there's no way that's happening! This was a mission that Seywir, that idiot, tricked us into and ran on his own! He wasn't even our assigned mentor necromancer to begin with!"
"Good luck making that case to the disciplinary committee. Although... Kizen's stubborn as they come, so who knows how it'll go."
"You realize all you've done since we got here is act cool and spout pessimism? It's infuriating."
"And you keep—!"
Just as the two of them were raising their voices higher and higher, Camibarez bowed her head deeply and spoke.
"...I'm sorry, everyone. It's because of me."
At those words, Dick and Meilin froze mid-argument, startled. Then they forced smiles and hurried to comfort her.
"Aw, c'mon! No way! Cami, you took down a whole Priest, didn't you? You did your part. You didn't do anything wrong!"
"Yeah, exactly!"
Dick gave a thumbs-up and went on.
"I can't speak for the rest of us, but you—there's no way I'll let you get expelled."
"If I'm the only one who stays, then I'll withdraw too! Everyone has to stay at Kizen together!"
Having said that, Camibarez bowed her head again.
"And Sasha... what's going to happen to her now?"
"..."
No one could answer that question.
A heavy, deflated mood settled over the group.
And Simon, who had been quietly listening on his own, finished organizing his thoughts and moved. He gently laid Camibarez down in the grass, then searched through the garments of Seywir, who was still twitching intermittently.
"Ah."
Simon pulled out a necklace the man had been wearing.
"Dick. Isn't this a sub-space?"
Dick strode over and inspected it.
"Sub-space artifact, no question. Wow, it's ancient!"
"Think you can open it?"
"Hmm, let me take a look."
Dick set the necklace down, pulled a pair of magic-treated glasses out of his own sub-space, and leaned in.
"Ha, this is a proper old-model secondhand sub-space! Modern ones respond to the user's movements or jet-black, but with something this old, I can crack it in no time."
"Go ahead."
Dick brought out a portable table and his equipment, set the sub-space down, and scratched away at it for a while.
And before long—
"Got it!"
An opening formed, just large enough to fit an arm through the body of the ring. Dick reached in, stirred it around a few times, and soon pulled something out.
"It's a communication crystal!"
"Seriously?"
Meilin bounced on her toes with joy—for all of a moment—before glaring down at Seywir, still senseless on the ground.
"You said you LOST it, and there it is, perfectly fine! You—! You—! A liar to the very end!"
Dick handed the crystal to Simon.
"Fixed-point transmission only. Looks like this really was his channel to headquarters."
"I'll connect it right now."
Simon fed mana into the crystal to activate it. A connecting tone rang out, like mana humming in vibration, and after a moment—
-SEYWIIIIIIIIR!!!
A man's voice exploded through the crystal, loud enough to split their eardrums. Simon squeezed one eye shut and held the crystal away from his ear, while the rest of the team clapped their hands over both of theirs.
-Where are you? Where the hell are you right now, you lunatic?! Because of you the ENTIRE Vengeance organization is on emergency alert, EMERGENCY! You @$*%^!!!
It was, plainly, the voice of a man in a towering rage. Simon forced a smile and tried to explain.
"There's been a misunderstanding, sir. I'm not Seywir, I'm—!"
-Don't give me that!! Have you completely lost your mind?! You, a nobody with no credentials, hijacking Kizen students to run a critical mission?! Who the hell do you think you&^!@$!!!
The man was so busy pouring out his fury that there was no sign of him listening to a word anyone said.
"Give it here."
Meilin took the communication crystal.
Even as she cleared her throat with a dainty ahem, the man's vicious cursing rolled on.
-You little punk! Didn't I tell you last week? Do exactly what you're assigned and NOTHING else! Ugh, I'm so mad I can't even talk straight, you absolute—
"Hello there! This is Vengeance Headquarters, correct?"
The moment a woman's voice cut in, the other side froze mid-rant, plainly flustered.
-Ah, wh-who, who is this?
Meilin beamed and answered in a ringing, imperious voice.
"I am Meilin Villenne, a first-year of Kizen assigned to the Vengeance dispatch mission!"
There was exactly five seconds of silence.
-Oh, ohhh, oh! What an, what an unforgivable discourtesy to a guest of your standing! I apologize! It was entirely unintentional! Please, allow me to offer my sincerest—
This time, a long torrent of abject apologies came pouring out.
Meilin drew herself up smugly, then brought the crystal back to her lips.
"May I ask who I'm speaking with?"
-I-I'm Block, a field operative of Vengeance! Under normal circumstances, I would be the supervising necromancer assigned to you students of Kizen!
"Ah, I see. Well then, first, allow me to explain our current situation."
Meilin told him everything.
How Seywir had used illusion magic to forge the letters, deceived them, and dragged them along; how, assigned to secure Sasha, they'd beaten the gang that had abducted her and reclaimed her—fine and good—but had then been attacked by Efnel and lost Sasha all over again.
-H-haha. Quite a remarkable series of events in so short a time... You have all worked exceedingly hard. Losing Sasha is entirely our fault. I will make sure the school hears that no disadvantage falls upon you students.
Meilin's face relaxed completely. She nodded at her teammates, then continued in a deliberately composed voice.
"Good, thank you. We'd appreciate that."
-We ought to come collect you students this very instant, but we have a situation of our own that's just erupted, so it may take some time. In the meantime, please take shelter in any nearby village—
Then Simon stepped up and gestured to Meilin for the crystal. She handed it over without protest.
"This is Simon Polentia, also a first-year at Kizen."
Another five seconds of silence.
-Ah, aha! Hahaha! THE Special Admission No. 1 himself! I'm utterly mortified—please, I beg you, say nothing to the Witch of Death—!
"I won't say a word. More importantly, I need information on the man called the 'godfather' who attacked Sasha."
-Understood! Right away! I'll look into it immediately and contact you from our end!
And with that, the call ended.
Simon had asked about the godfather for his own reasons.
He had not the slightest intention of ending a mission he'd taken on in such an unsatisfying mess.
And beyond his sense of duty to the mission, the truth was he felt personally responsible for Sasha.
Pier seemed to be relishing this tangled, complicated situation.
‘...Haaah. I suppose there's no help for it.’
Simon scratched his head vigorously and spoke.
‘If a student's power isn't enough, then I'll solve it with the power of a Legion Commander.’
Pier roared with laughter, as if that was precisely the answer he'd been waiting for.