The Knight's Oath (5)
Violet clouds gathered in the eastern sky, and night fell in an instant.
The streets thronged with travelers who had come to watch the fireworks.
Having finished his final preparations, Agnian climbed the clock tower in the square.
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
A sign hung at the entrance, but he ignored it and made his way to the top, where the massive gears turned.
"Pwah!"
"Drink! Drink!"
"Let's drink till we drop!"
There were already people there.
Empty bottles rolled this way and that. Three men clustered by the window, and every time they opened their mouths a thick, sweet reek of liquor rose into the air.
—Thud. Thud.
At the sound of footsteps behind them, all three heads turned of their own accord.
"Hey."
The clock tower keeper, thoroughly drunk, staggered to his feet.
"This ain't a place just anyone can walk into. Go on down."
He cooled the heat of the festival — or perhaps just the heat of the booze — for a moment and spoke kindly.
"There was a sign at the entrance too, right? Authorized personnel only."
The keeper pressed one of the fried sardines he'd been snacking on into Agnian's hand.
"Take this and head down careful. Enjoy the festival."
"Do you know what this festival means?"
Agnian looked down at the keeper and muttered flatly.
"Even the neighborhood kids know that. It's a festival to celebrate the start of summer."
The keeper glanced at his two friends by the window, and they chimed in with "That's right" and "We do it every summer," lending their voices to his.
"Is that all?"
Agnian stared quietly at the keeper and his friends.
"Huh? What else is there?"
The keeper thought it over carefully.
It wasn't something that needed serious thought, yet he dutifully searched for some other meaning.
But no matter how thoroughly he rummaged through his mind, he could find no other significance to the festival.
"Yeah, nothing else."
"Do you know how this city was built?"
"Well, the Empire built it properly, I suppose."
While the keeper tried to send Agnian back down, his friends clinked their cups together among themselves.
"Hey! Don't drink without me!"
The keeper hurried back to his seat, waving Agnian off with a gesture to go down carefully.
"So you don't know. No — you don't even care."
The sound of cups striking rang out — clink.
At the same moment, a sharp sound cut through the air like a bow drawn across the high string of a violin.
—Fwoooosh— BOOM!!
Brilliant fireworks bloomed beyond the window.
A tangerine-colored pinwheel unfurled high in the night sky and fluttered open with a soft burst. Dozens more rockets followed, trailing long tails as they climbed.
—Bang! Boom! Bang! Bang! Boom!
Thousands upon thousands of sparks blotted out the night sky. Multicolored fireworks poured down as if the stars themselves were falling.
The spectacle stirred something aesthetic and profound, and a vast rapture crashed over them like a storm.
—Clink!
Watching the fireworks, the three men knocked their cups together.
"............The beginning of the end."
Agnian pressed his thumb into the red orb in his pocket.
—Crack. Crrrack.
Branch-like fissures spidered across the surface of the orb.
It was a past already centuries gone.
The Flame Lizard Tribe had submitted to the Empire and lived well enough. He knew that today's decision would do them no good at all.
But he wanted them to know.
He wanted those who had forgotten the past and lived as subjects of the Empire to remember — the pain of the past, the pride of warriors.
After today, everyone in the Empire would remember the name of the Flame Lizard Tribe.
After today, everyone in the Empire would be filled with horror.
After today, everyone in the Empire would despair at the death of the Saintess.
Agnian pressed harder with his thumb, and the orb crumbled to dust.
Night had fallen before they knew it.
Fireworks of every color bloomed across the night sky.
Leaving that beautiful sky behind them, Lowen and Ariel raced through the streets.
"I found him!"
Ariel pointed to the clock tower in the square.
Her eyes, glittering with divine power, fixed on the top of the tower where the great minute hand was still moving.
"Over there...! I can feel it over there!"
A fierce, malignant will was spreading in every direction.
"Ugh...!"
A sense of dread crawled across her skin.
The growing malice stained the entire clock tower. The silver tower, reflecting the fireworks, looked as though it had been painted blood-red.
"L-Lowen, Bishop! Wait!"
Ariel urgently stopped Lowen as he moved to enter the tower.
"What is it?"
"You mustn't go up there now. Absolutely not."
A chill ran through her.
Her skin, flushed hot moments before, went cold enough to raise goosebumps. The coldness sliding down her spine spread like poison, gradually numbing her.
And that dread became reality.
—BOOOOM!!
It exploded.
Timed to the fireworks, the top of the clock tower detonated. Bricks that had formed the building scattered in every direction like the fireworks in the night sky. The frozen hour and minute hands shot outward like a dragon knight's lances.
"O Lord of Light, protect all from danger, grant strength to my divine power, grant me courage..."
Ariel began to pray at once.
The square was packed with people. If that debris fell on them, the casualties would be catastrophic.
Those who had been gazing up at the night sky still hadn't grasped what had happened to the clock tower; they simply stared blankly at the bricks falling toward their heads.
Above them, a golden ripple shimmered and formed into a vast flower.
It could not catch every piece of debris, but it was enough to prevent a major loss of life.
One second. Two seconds. People came to their senses, screamed, and began flooding out of the square.
The streets bottlenecked. Even under the orders of knights on patrol, people thought only of fleeing.
—BOOM!!
An explosion that shook the ground. A massive pillar of fire shot high into the sky.
Lowen looked up at the column of flame and made a sour face.
His instincts had never been wrong. He had already felt that he was about to be dragged into something troublesome.
"Tsk."
He clicked his tongue.
Somehow, lately, one incident after another kept exploding around him. Just yesterday he had suffered through that ordeal in the forest, and now today he was stuck with this one. All he had wanted was a quiet life.
Apparently someone up in the heavens had no intention of leaving Lowen alone.
"I should have just stayed buried in Baram-sae Forest..."
Once this was over, he would write a letter. He would dare to write to the archbishop, who was no doubt finishing a peaceful day in Windfield. Whatever it was they meant to give him, it would be here in Rest Town — so please send it this way.
The screams grew distant.
The square that had swarmed with people emptied in an instant.
—Thud-thud-thud-thud!
The barrier vanished, and the debris Ariel had been holding aloft came crashing down.
—Boom!
Onto the silence-settled square, a flame fell.
"That's..."
Ariel frowned against the fierce light and looked closer.
"It's a person!"
She cried out in shock.
The blaze roaring before them was a man.
"How kind of you to come greet me yourselves."
Through the flames, intense blood-red eyes. The man clad in fire as if it were armor was Agnian.
"Saves me the trouble."
Flame coiled around Agnian's right hand and became a blazing greatsword.
"Haa......"
Lowen let out a deep sigh.
Trouble was burning brightly right in front of him. Yesterday it had been monsters; today it was some monster of a man. If he had his way, he would simply run.
He had no reason to deal with this creature, and no desire to either. A hero who stood against evil would have drawn his sword at once — but as he had said before, Lowen was no apostle of justice.
"Saintess, I believe we should flee first."
Surviving came before fighting.
"R-Right."
Ariel, her throat constricted by murderous intent, nodded stiffly.
Instinct told her with brutal clarity that this was the moment to run. A strategic retreat. Their original goal — to soothe Agnian's rage — had already failed. As anyone could see, that rage had already exploded, and it had grown far beyond anything they could contain.
"Over there!"
The knights who defended Rest Town surrounded the terrorist.
"While they buy us time, let's evacuate somewhere safe."
"Yes...!"
She had assumed he would stay and help the knights, so this was unexpected. Still, Ariel followed Lowen without protest.
The killing intent crawling down her spine had terrified her. Those blood-red eyes visible through the flames had been fixed on Ariel alone from the very beginning. Her survival instinct was screaming that she needed to get away from that mass of fury immediately.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Agnian slammed his greatsword into the ground.
The earth shook violently.
—BOOM! Bang! Bang! Bang!
A chain of explosions erupted along the edge of the square. The ground split open and pillars of fire surged upward.
They rose.
And rose again.
They rose without end.
And just like that, the entire square was sealed inside a wall of fire.
The knights looked shaken, but they formed ranks and leveled their weapons at Agnian.
"Knights — I address you."
"Fire!"
The knights drawing their crossbows released their strings. A sharp chorus of twangs filled the square. Thick bolts swarmed around Agnian.
"On this spot, today, the Saintess dies."
Dozens of arrows aimed at Agnian struck his armor of flame and burned away as if melting.
Sounds of confusion — "Wha—" — rose from the knights.
"If my recklessness, if my stupidity, can become your despair..."
Agnian swung his greatsword in a wide arc.
Small orbs of flame scattered in every direction and streaked toward the knights.
"Shields! Raise your shields!"
The knights in front lifted shields as large as their own torsos.
—Bang! Ba-boom! Bang!
The fireballs slammed into the shields. The impact was strong enough to rock the knights' heavy frames. They weathered the first volley, but every shield had burned away.
Defending against the same attack a second time was impossible. If he launched another wave of fireballs, the knights would be reduced to black ash without resistance.
Agnian did not keep them waiting long.
—Whoosh!
The sound of a greatsword cutting the air. Flame scattered, and dozens of fireballs sprayed outward once more.
"Aaaargh!"
One knight screamed as a fireball flew straight at his face.
—BOOM! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The fireballs struck the knights again and again.
But they were unharmed.
"Wha..."
"How is this..."
Without a single burn, the knights blinked in stunned confusion and looked around.
"Behind us!"
At one knight's cry, they all saw her — a young woman in a black nun's habit, hands clasped before her chest in prayer.
When Agnian had first declared, "On this spot, today, the Saintess dies," the knights had not understood what he meant.
Why would he be looking for the Saintess here?
Every knight present had thought the same. Before arriving at the square they had seen the vast flower unfurl in the sky, but they had assumed it was the high priest of Rest Town's holy magic.
It was not.
"The S-Saintess!!"
The Saintess truly was in Rest Town.
Even without the white habit that symbolized a Saintess, even with a veil obscuring her face, they knew. The girl standing there with her hands joined in prayer was the Saintess — and she was protecting them right now.
Ariel, who had shielded the knights from the fireballs, opened her eyes.
A fierce will burned in her violet irises.
"I will protect all of you."
At the Saintess's single sentence, the knights' morale soared beyond measure.
Looks like I won't need to step in.
Before she sought to redeem evil, Ariel sought to protect the knights from it. Lowen watched her with something like the fond pride of a father watching his daughter grow — the noble bearing of a true Saintess flowing from her.
"Do your best, Saintess."
The protagonist was the Saintess.
Lowen, cast as a supporting role, decided to cheer her on.