The Dark Cabal (4)
The flash of the Luminous Orb stood out vividly against the darkness.
"Let's go. That's the way James went."
"Y-yeah. Let's go, hurry."
Alec cast a worried glance at Yona, her face still flushed and her breathing ragged.
Yona herself seemed entirely unbothered, but Alec couldn't stop fretting over her.
"You sure you're okay?"
"I'm, perfectly, fine. I told you to hurry—why are you just standing there?"
Yona's snapping protest finally got Alec running too, though the worry never left him.
"Intruders!"
Figures. These bastards really were species-bigots.
Gripping his bow stave, James swung it hard into the side of the first man's head as he charged.
Despite the pendant hanging around the man's neck, it seemed an Orc simply couldn't be allowed into this mysterious organization — the moment the group of men gathered inside laid eyes on James, they all rushed at him, shouting that an intruder had breached the hall.
"Kill him!"
"Now that hardly seems fair, seeing as I can't be killing any of you."
James started to draw his dagger, then stopped himself.
Those bastards were clearly lunging at him with every intent to kill, but James was merely an adventurer — he wasn't someone licensed to take a life.
'They'd best hurry and get here.'
James swept his eyes quickly across the building's interior.
Like an inn, the inside consisted of one great circular hall, with stairs running up along its rim. This was the ground floor, so there were no stairs leading up, but across the hall, directly in view, he caught a glimpse of a landing that clearly led down into a basement.
Second floor, or underground.
James ducked under the man's fist and drove his own up into his chin.
With a sensation like something snapping, the man crumpled to the floor — and in the same instant, a violent impact slammed into James's back.
The men he'd spotted in the hall alone numbered well over ten.
If all of them swarmed in at once, it would be a bit much for James, who wasn't a warrior by trade.
The moment he jabbed his elbow into the temple of a man rushing him from behind, a searing pain flared up along his side.
There was admittedly a size difference between an Orc and a human, but when the man swinging the blade was human himself, build hardly mattered at all.
'I have to save Rubina.'
And yet, he couldn't very well turn his own children into fatherless brats either.
That was what James thought.
"Hup—!"
At the sound of a familiar voice, a couple of men went flying through the air.
Watching humans tumble like toys, James let out a breath of relief.
"Oi, lizard. You're late. Was it too cold at night for you to get moving?"
"An Orc letting a human put a blade in him — have you no shame."
Kayak swung his axe a couple of times, then flipped it and caught it in reverse grip.
An axe blade brought down would kill a man outright, but a blow from the haft wouldn't.
If the treatment came too late they'd die anyway, but that would simply be dying of natural causes.
"Where are Yona and Alec?"
"Still coming, I'd wager. You were the first to arrive."
"Two Bronze Ranks coming in dead last — how disgraceful. I'll have to give them a thrashing."
Kayak grinned with a mouthful of teeth as he lazily carved through the men around him.
"I set off a second Luminous Orb on my way in. The guard can hardly have missed it, so push down a bit further and have a look."
"I'll do that. First we ought to clear this floor."
James re-gripped his bow stave.
A dull ache was spreading up from his lower back, but now that his comrades had arrived, things were looking up no matter how you sliced it.
"Come on, then. It's been what — twenty years since we last fought side by side?"
"Don't remind me. Makes me feel old."
"We are old, what of it."
Kayak bellowed a roar and charged.
Right behind him, James followed, bow stave gripped in reverse, a dagger held reversed in his other hand.
"Are you really okay?"
Another Luminous Orb had burst into light while they ran, and though they were sprinting flat-out, the place had been so far off that they still had a ways to go.
"I'm, ngh... fine... I said! I! Did!"
Yona was getting so irritated that Alec shut his mouth, but something still seemed off.
The heat radiating from her right arm was barely tolerable, and Yona herself knew well enough that something was wrong with her.
It was just that her priorities, right now, were entirely consumed by one thing — saving Rubina.
"This should be the place."
The moment they rounded the corner, a building with its door flung wide open came into view.
The two men collapsed unconscious in front of it made for rather ugly decoration, and more than anything, the sounds of things shattering and bodies flying about drifting out through the open door were practically announcing: this was it.
"Let's go in."
When Alec and Yona stumbled inside, gasping for breath, they found Kayak still fresh as ever and James, his side soaked red, panting hard.
More than twenty men lay sprawled across the floor around them, and still more kept appearing from somewhere or other.
"James!"
Yona lunged toward him.
The blue radiance gathered in her right hand flowed along her touch and sank into James's wound.
"Perfect timing, truly. Things were getting rather difficult."
"...I'm sorry we're late."
"You came before I died, so it's fine enough. Go down into the basement. That way."
James jerked his chin toward Yona and Alec.
"Right. The two of us can hold this floor well enough, so go. As a rule, kidnappers don't care to get any closer to the heavens than they must — they'll be underground. Go save Rubina. The poor thing must be terrified out of her wits."
Kayak swung his axe haft again, clubbing one more man across the shoulder as he spoke.
Amid a colorful chorus of screams, Yona shot Alec a look.
"Let's go!"
Alec gave Kayak and James's shoulders a pat and sprinted without hesitation for the stairs across the hall. Yona raced after him.
"What in the world is going on here!?"
The moment Alec and Yona vanished down the stairs, a squad of uniformed guards came pouring through the building's entrance.
Two Luminous Orbs detonated back to back had apparently kicked up enough of a commotion that the guard had turned out in force.
Granted, that had been half the intention.
"As you can see, some very strange men were engaged in some very strange business."
James ripped the pendant from the neck of one of the unconscious men with a sharp crack, then tossed it to one of the higher-ranking guards, who caught it in a fumble and examined it closely.
"...The Dark Cabal...!"
The guard's face went rigid. He handed the pendant to another of his men beside him.
"Take this to the Regent's residence and report it. Tell them we raided a gathering of the Dark Cabal — report it quickly, you hear me? Quickly!"
The man charged with playing messenger snapped a hasty salute and bolted from the scene.
"As the guard force of Carpatia Port, we cannot stand idly by! Moving in!"
Ludwig and Vigrind had brought the food over without the faintest idea what any of it had been made from.
It was the first time either of them had even seen fish — how would they know its name?
But Ceres, as if taking care to spare them the embarrassment, kept up a steady explanation of the dishes as she guided them to their seats.
"This one is made from a fish called cod. It's a white fish, but with a somewhat firmer texture. So I've had it cooked with a richer sauce, along with spices and herbs."
"This is made from sole. Dredged in flour and fried in butter — it's called a Dover Sole Meunière."
"Ah, and that one isn't a Carpatian dish. It comes from a land far away. The name is... hmm, I suppose 'octopus bread' would be the closest way to put it — octopus mixed into a dough of starch and flour. Now, you sprinkle these very finely shaved dried tuna flakes on top like so... See? It's as if they're dancing."
With all the dishes laid out until the table was nearly groaning under them, it was truly a magnificent sight.
"This wine is called Chablis. It belongs to the family of Chardonnay wines."
Ceres poured the wine into Ludwig's and Vigrind's glasses with a soft murmur.
"Chardonnay is a wine that isn't aged in oak. The dry Muscadet from the Loire Valley, they say, pairs beautifully with seafood. Carpatia faces the sea, you see, so unoaked Chardonnay is quite famous here. Please, have a taste."
"Ah, yes! How remarkably erudite you are, Lady Regent."
"Oh, it's nothing. One simply comes to know these things by enjoying them."
Ludwig's clumsy remark, Ceres parried with practiced grace.
There was something so mature and charming about the way she did it that Vigrind couldn't take her eyes off the woman.
'So this is... the allure of a grown woman...'
"Oh my, Saintess, is the food not to your liking? Why aren't you eating?"
"N-no, it's wonderful!"
Vigrind, who had been staring blankly at Ceres, hastily shoved one of the octopus breads into her mouth.
"Saintess, that's hot—"
"HothotHOT...!!"
Vigrind's face flared scarlet.
The moment she bit down on the octopus bread she'd crammed in whole, searing heat bloomed across her tongue, and it was only after draining the wine Ceres handed her in a single gulp to cool her mouth that she barely managed to compose herself.
And the moment she calmed down, embarrassment came crashing over her like a wave.
"Won't you be... eating anything, Lady Regent?"
"Oh, I was just about to—"
That was when it happened.
- Knock, knock.
Ceres pressed her lips together and gave a slight lift of her shoulders, glancing to Vigrind for pardon.
"Come in."
The door to the dining room opened quietly, and a white-haired man in a deep navy butler's coat bowed low from the threshold.
"Lady Regent, my deepest apologies for interrupting your dinner."
"It's quite all right."
The white-haired man walked slowly to Ceres's side, inclined his head with graceful courtesy, and whispered something into her ear.
"Now?"
"Yes, my lady. At this very moment."
"Not a single redeeming thing about those people, is there. Very well. Go."
Ceres's face contorted savagely for an instant.
But no sooner had it done so than, the moment she turned back toward Ludwig and Vigrind, it was wearing a soft and gentle smile again.
"It seems there's been a small disturbance."
"A disturbance?"
To Ludwig, that word of Ceres's — small — sounded like a mere figure of speech.
If it were truly a small disturbance, it would never have been reported straight to Ceres in the middle of a dinner party.
"Might I ask what kind of disturbance it is?"
"Hmm—"
Ceres's gaze rolled lazily over and came to rest on the Heavenly God Religion pendant hanging at Vigrind's chest.
"Since the Saintess herself is here, I suppose there's no harm in telling you."
"Me?"
Suddenly brought into the conversation, Vigrind flinched in surprise.
Dinner had long since been forgotten, and both Ludwig and Vigrind were staring at Ceres now.
"We recently received intelligence that a band of wicked heretics has been stirring up trouble. Scoundrels who would dare topple the Heavenly God Religion and plot the resurrection of the Demon God. It seems they were holding a gathering tonight when they were discovered, and the disturbance broke out."
"Where did this happen?"
Ludwig shot to his feet.
To topple the Heavenly God Religion and resurrect the Demon God — it was nothing less than the vanguard of calamity itself.
"Slaying demons and Demon Kings — that is the Hero's sacred charge. Even the vanguard of such a calamity is a great duty in my eyes, so I beg you, allow me to join the subjugation of these villains."
"I—I'll come too. To think they'd try to topple the Heavenly God Religion — it's absolutely unforgivable."
Ceres looked back and forth between the two of them, then let a faint smile touch her lips.
"I see. To have you both throw yourselves so wholeheartedly into this — it's a true comfort. Then—"
A smile slid slowly across Ceres's mouth.
"I shall escort you there myself."