VIII. A Knight Craves Battle (8)
VIII. A Knight Craves Battle (8)
"So..."
Keldric carefully considered what the woman before him—the demon—had said.
"Are you saying Jacober is homosexual?"
"He is. The wretch committed foul Sodomy, and the sweetness of that sin is beyond all reckoning."
Keldric frowned sharply. In this age, sodomy meant homosexual intercourse—sex between men.
When Keldric looked thoroughly unimpressed, the demon in human form blinked at him.
Its vivid yellow eyes remained fixed on the mace. The stare would have seemed deeply unsettling to most people.
"What are you looking at?"
"...What am I looking at?"
Keldric was not most people, so it failed to move him.
The demon rolled its eyes aside. Keldric sighed and scratched his chin.
Homosexuality was considered a sin in this age, especially sexual relations between men.
Such intercourse involved anal sex, which the Church treated as both lust and greed.
Sex was held to be a sacred act between a man and a woman for the creation of life.
Anyone in the Empire would recoil at sex pursued only for pleasure, especially through a body part deemed unclean.
Some regions were surprisingly tolerant of sodomy, but the Empire was not among them.
The northern Empire, where Keldric had been born and raised, was even harsher.
Keldric had never seen it himself, but his brothers once excitedly told him that northern villagers had beaten a man to death for having sex with another man.
"That decrepit apostate committed a sin because he could not resist whispers tempting him into corruption."
According to the demon, Jacober had been tempted by another demon into committing sodomy.
The Wolf Demon was hardly one to condemn him, yet its detached tone suggested demons did not necessarily help one another.
"It is no wonder the apostate convulsed at a virgin’s urine. Having fallen into sodomy, he was made incapable of coupling with a woman."
"Then why did he become an imbecile?"
"Aha-ha! That is simple as well. Do you think the apostate fell to a demon’s temptation for nothing?"
The demon laughed heartily in its woman’s form and raised one slender finger.
The finger approached with the seductive slowness of a snake climbing a tree, then its nail lightly scratched Keldric’s breastplate.
"Souls are not all we desire. A witless body capable of roaming this world is also profoundly enticing."
"You can possess a human body?"
"Of course. Since this land was transformed, I have traveled here through the people I once brought to prosperity."
"..."
"In any case, the old apostate’s offering was simple."
The thing he feared most.
In exchange for the opportunity to experience that fear, Jacober had been promised something by a demon.
What that something was, Keldric had no way of knowing.
Only Jacober could reveal what it was, but thieves did not call themselves thieves. He was unlikely to confess his sin.
"Why should I tell you that?"
The demon proved no more helpful when Keldric asked it directly.
He tilted the mace as though the demon needed instruction. It flinched, but stubbornly refused to answer.
Keldric sensed that no amount of beating would make it speak, so he did not jeopardize their fragile relationship for nothing.
'Is it bound by some restriction?'
This was an agreement between a demon and a corrupted apostate. Keldric was neither.
Perhaps discussing matters with a demon and accepting its help already counted as betraying the Church... but Keldric did not see it that way, and the demon did not object.
"Still, he has now undergone the experience he feared most. The bodily fluid of a virgin—a woman he can never again approach—touched him. It must have struck directly at the bargain."
"So becoming an imbecile was what he feared most."
"I do appreciate a wise and courageous warrior."
Keldric thought in silence.
Jacober had succumbed to a demon’s temptation and committed sodomy. Keldric now understood why a virgin’s urine made him convulse and left him half-witted.
The experience he feared most had been pledged as payment, and contact with a woman had violated the condition.
The demon had therefore taken what it was owed, and Jacober had paid the price.
"Did the brand subside because the same demon placed it?"
Hearing Keldric's question, the demon gave no answer.
It only raised one corner of its mouth in an alluring smile, but that expression gave Keldric all the answer he needed.
"Understood."
Keldric resolved to remember the flame-shaped brand and everything he had learned about the demon.
Whatever the outcome, dismissing the cause of that absurd explosion as a passing disturbance would have been dangerously complacent.
So far, the explosion was the only attack that had ever made Keldric feel truly threatened.
Keldric was not foolish enough to ignore his sole known weakness.
Demon worshipers and apostates would inevitably oppose Keldric if he stood with the Church.
It was therefore wise to learn more about the explosion.
Nor could he assume a virgin’s urine would stop another one.
Alisa’s urine had worked specifically because Jacober had committed sodomy.
No one knew whether it would work on other branded people, such as Jamash.
Keldric’s consciousness gradually dimmed—the familiar sign that he was waking.
"One last question."
"Any further answer requires payment. Warrior, what will you give me?"
"The next time we meet, I won’t hit you with the mace."
"..."
The demon in woman’s form spat a small flame from its mouth. Keldric ignored it and asked another question.
"Why did they implant Erosion Larvae in Sir Ortvin?"
The demon silently curled one corner of its mouth. Its upturned yellow eyes studied Keldric’s steady dark-blue gaze for a long moment.
"...I truly do appreciate a courageous warrior."
At last, it waved one hand as though conceding defeat and answered.
"You will learn soon enough."
"Soon enough...?"
"Young and valiant warrior, if you continue on your present path, you will inevitably meet the one who drove that apostate."
The demon’s words echoed through Keldric’s mind.
As his vision blurred, Keldric felt a cold hand gently stroke his face.
"And remember this."
When that time came, he would defy fate.
Without fail.
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
The first thing Keldric did after waking was straighten his clothes and go to Alisa’s room.
"Alisa."
The door remained firmly shut, but the movement inside told him Alisa was already awake.
"We need to talk for a moment."
The movement abruptly stopped. Keldric waited in silence.
After a long stretch of pacing inside, the door finally opened.
"...Sir Keldric."
Alisa greeted him looking slightly disheveled. Her gloomy face sharpened his guilt.
She cautiously invited him in. Keldric sat in the offered chair and remained silent for a while.
Alisa sat opposite him, equally quiet. An awkward silence filled the room.
"Haa..."
Alisa finally spoke first, making Keldric flinch despite himself.
"Sir Keldric, about what happened..."
"I’m sorry."
He led with an immediate apology. Keldric truly was sorry, so the words came without hesitation.
Alisa stared at him for a moment before reluctantly speaking.
"...No. It’s all right. I understand that it was necessary."
"..."
"As a wizard, I shouldn’t allow personal feelings to obstruct an efficient solution."
A faint smile touched Alisa’s lips. Seeing it only deepened Keldric’s guilt.
"I won’t let personal feelings sway me again. I’m sorry for how I behaved."
"No. I’m the one who should apologize."
"Sir Keldric, a man—and especially a knight—must not bow his head so readily."
Her delicate hand carefully closed around Keldric’s broad, pot-lid-sized one.
The silken touch left Keldric momentarily dazed.
"I’m all right now."
He had held a woman’s hand before, but had it always felt like this?
"B-but... next time, please warn me before asking for something like that..."
The pale hand around his gradually turned red. So did Alisa’s face.
Keldric might not have looked much different.
"I’ll try."
Keldric did his best to ignore the heat spreading across his ears.
His efforts were useless. The warmth in his hand lingered and tormented him for a long time.
Keldric knew how to fight, but he was hopeless at matters like this.
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
"Oh..."
Keldric looked over the roughly forty soldiers assembled in the inner castle’s courtyard and let out an appreciative sound.
Their nearly uniform equipment filled him with indescribable satisfaction.
Even the way they held their weapons marked them as experienced soldiers.
They were not serfs levied by Count Bogenberg, but professional troops who trained regularly and hunted bandits for a living.
They would wield spears and swords and loose arrows with practiced skill. Their experience in killing was another advantage.
Keldric approached the formation, and the soldiers offered him a disciplined salute.
"Sir Keldric of honorable House Bellaf, it is an honor to serve you."
"Hm."
Forty elite soldiers. With that force behind him, Keldric felt he lacked nothing.
Count Bogenberg’s support did not end there.
"Another knight is coming?"
"Yes. His Excellency Count Bogenberg has concluded another sacred contract."
Keldric nodded. Commanding forty soldiers alone would certainly have been difficult.
Keldric excelled at smashing anything he considered an enemy.
Commanding soldiers and devising strategy, however, required practical experience.
He did not know who would join him, but unless the man was a complete disaster of a knight, Keldric would welcome the company.
"Oh! Sir Keldric!"
The voice behind him was painfully familiar.
"You’re still in the city? I heard you went to Spitzenberg!"
"Sir Henri?"
Sir Henri of House Candillon was still in Bogenberg.
Keldric stared at him in disbelief. Surely Henri could not be the knight assigned to accompany him...
"I signed a contract with Lord Bogenberg as well! The road to Yaven sounded lonely, but I’ll feel much safer with you beside me!"
"...Right."
Keldric did not resent their stubbornly persistent connection.
Nor did he doubt Henri’s fighting ability or leadership.
"More importantly, Sir Keldric, while you were gone I found an excellent brothel..."
"..."
Still, exhaustion was already setting in before the campaign had even begun.