131. Hero Fanatic
131. Hero Fanatic
"...Is it really all right for you to come here like this?"
"I have already finished speaking with Sedil, the dean of this academy. So it is fine."
"No... well, I mean... I suppose you would need the dean's permission, but... aren't you avoiding the vice dean?"
The Flame Emperor's eyelids fluttered.
"I-it is fine. I, the Flame Emperor, have done nothing wrong to the Fist Demon. Therefore, I have no reason to avoid her."
That wasn't it. She had clearly checked that Leona wasn't at the academy before coming in.
When I'd checked my device a little while ago, I'd seen that Leona's device was turned off.
"For someone saying that, you were running for your life yesterday..."
"That was... because the Fist Demon's extreme affection for her disciple overlapped with a minor misunderstanding, so do not worry yourself over it."
The Flame Emperor, who had barely managed to put on a confident expression, straightened her shoulders. Following her movement, two viciously massive mounds of fat that even her robe couldn't conceal jiggled.
"Well... if you say so, Flame Emperor, then I suppose that's how it is. But... um, I'm sorry to keep asking questions, but what is all that stuff you've lugged here?"
"Hm! I brought gifts for you, and treasures that I, the Flame Emperor, cherish, to show you."
A goofy grin spread across the Flame Emperor's face.
"...Gifts? Treasures?"
"Indeed. Gifts. They are things I, the Flame Emperor, treasure greatly. Though... I do not know if they will be to your liking."
"Who has likes and dislikes when it comes to gifts? I'm just grateful and happy, no matter what."
"I am grateful to hear you say that."
The Flame Emperor, who had briefly looked dejected, put a bright, childlike smile back on her face.
Seriously... she looks like she'd slap you silly just for daring to glance at her, but everything she does is pure ditz.
"Eliarnes. Gifts aside, I, the Flame Emperor, have come here to hear your answer."
"Ah, yes. Right."
I nodded and pulled my chair forward.
The answer. The answer.
The question about what my relationship to the Calamity Star was.
I had already decided on that answer.
An answer that even one of the Six Pillars couldn't recklessly refute or doubt.
However.
"I, the Flame Emperor, have done quite a lot of thinking over the course of a day. Eliarnes. Are you perhaps—"
An intense flame kindled in the Flame Emperor's eyes.
The ditzy smile vanished too. Her voice sank, and the cool air of the training hall grew hot.
And then, the slowly wafting scent of fire.
The Flame Emperor, who had caused all those phenomena, spoke in a voice more serious than ever before.
"Are you the disciple of Ronan Luzarak?"
"...Excuse me?"
"Is the word disciple... not quite right? Hm, still, there is no choice but to call you a disciple. Even if you did not learn directly from him, in the end, you did learn from him."
She says whatever she wants, understands whatever she wants, and keeps talking however she wants.
"The reason Ronan Luzarak came to be called the Calamity Star is because of his distinctive combat method. The violent Mana control that no ordinary human—no, not even a heaven-sent genius—could recklessly imitate. A combat method that erases the recoil, delay, and even preparatory movements of every motion."
I felt a little deflated at being asked if I was his disciple, but I was also a bit surprised that she knew me—knew Ronan Luzarak—in such detail.
"Though one can see the past but cannot hear its voices, so I do not know the name of that technique, that technique is a method of detonating the Mana within the body. Because of that explosion, light flashes. That light is just like a star in the night sky, and it is said that the moment that star rises, all manner of calamity descends—and so he was given the truly magnificent epithet of the Calamity Star."
I thought as I listened to the Flame Emperor.
Did this bitch lie about her age?
Did she only say the last two digits of ninety-seven, and she's actually already over four hundred?
She knew that much detail. Enough to make me think that.
How on earth? Even if she could read memories of the past, it would've been hard to know this much.
No, wait. Then...
"And, Eliarnes. You also used the same technique as him. However, the history known to the world now has changed a great deal."
As expected. The Flame Emperor knows.
"This is... something I cannot bring myself to tell you, for fear it would shock you, but in any case, what I, the Flame Emperor, mean to say is—"
"I also know that Ronan Luzarak... was not a Martial Artist."
The Flame Emperor's eyes flew open as if they might tear.
Her mouth dropped open, and the hand that had been resting on the table clenched into a tight fist.
"...That is right. In the past that I, the Flame Emperor, observed—"
"He wielded every weapon."
"G-good heavens. You... Eliarnes, how on earth do you know that past?"
It seemed best to go along with the answer the Flame Emperor had guessed and concluded on her own.
What basis had I thought of to explain it afterward?
It was obvious without even looking.
"It's because I... uh, saw the traces Ronan Luzarak left behind, studied them, and learned from them."
Clatter! As the Flame Emperor rose roughly, her chair toppled backward.
"As I thought... as I thought! In the Eustetia Duchy... there is something that Ronan Luzarak left behind!"
"Yes. That's right."
"Ha, heuheu, heuheuheuhat!"
The Flame Emperor wore a brighter smile than ever before and let out a stupid laugh.
Looking at that pure smile... the triangle in my heart kept jabbing at my conscience.
Still, what could I do?
It's not yet... the time to tell her.
Instead, I could tell her something else.
"And, um... I also know the name of the technique that earned Ronan the name Calamity Star."
"What did you say?! You... you know the name of that technique?! P-please... will you tell me? No, no. Compensation! If it is compensation, there is plenty in this bag!"
She set the enormous bag on the table.
"I can give you as much as you like of the treasures I, the Flame Emperor, cherish second-most. If you harbor a desire to grow stronger, you will surely be pleased with them!"
"Hm..."
Gulp—the Flame Emperor swallowed dryly and continued, her face looking as if she were trying to read my expression.
"I-if that is not enough... I can even give you money. I, the Flame Emperor, have a great, great deal of money. I also have a tremendous amount of rare gems and Mana Stones for Artifacts...!"
"No, well. I don't particularly want to receive anything. I won't refuse what you give me, but it's not like I want to forcibly extract it from you..."
Or was it? Should I have answered after seeing what was inside first? How would I know what's in there?
For now... there wouldn't be any weapons I used.
The ones I used were all weapons that had been in my grave.
So there wasn't really any need to get anything, was there?
I'm not short on money, and I have plenty of Elixirs.
Weapons? I'm a Martial Artist. Something to be filial to my parents with? I might have a younger sibling soon.
So there's no need to receive anything.
For some reason, just maintaining a close relationship with the Flame Emperor, who is insanely obsessed with Heroes, would be beneficial.
She can read the past, so she's bound to be helpful.
"So I'll just tell you. When it comes to Ronan, I can't say I know everything, but I'm not completely ignorant either."
That's what I said.
And then tears dripped from the Flame Emperor's eyes.
"Wh—no, why... are you crying?"
"Hngh... I, the Flame Emperor, do not cry. The only time I, the Flame Emperor... sniff, shed tears is when I meet the Heroes. If it is not that, then I, the Flame Emperor, never... cry..."
"You're crying right now, though? Tears are just streaming down."
"This is... merely moisture produced because the heat generated by the flames boiling within my body and heart differs from the outside temperature..."
The Flame Emperor flicked her finger and evaporated the tears in an instant, then placed her hand on the bag with a thoroughly serious face.
"...First. Let me show you the gifts. I truly hope they will be to your liking."
With that, starting with a click, spells began to be released at a speed that even my eyes couldn't follow.
"Oh..."
High-level sealing magic.
Just what I saw numbered thirty-seven. And that wasn't the end. Even after that, the clicking didn't stop until at least four times more had gone by.
"To me, the Flame Emperor, these are more precious than my life. So I made it so that no one could undo them, nor break them."
At some point, a key was in the Flame Emperor's hand. A key made of flame. When she inserted it into the exact center of the bag, shhhk! The sound of countless chains coming undone rang out, and with a hiss, the bag opened.
I craned my neck slightly to peer inside the bag, but for now, I couldn't see anything.
Just how many magical treatments had she applied to that shabby bag? I was daunted by the Flame Emperor's magic, which now felt like outright compulsion.
"This is one of the gifts I had decided to give you."
Whether I reacted or not, the Flame Emperor rummaged through the bag with a constant smile.
"Since you say you are Ronan's disciple, I am certain it will be to your liking. Ah, but that does not mean it is compensation for the story you will tell me. These are simply things I, the Flame Emperor, wish to give you. I desire nothing else."
The Flame Emperor's hand emerged from the bag.
And there.
"...Huh?"
She was holding a pocket watch.
Old, cracked, faded, and crude.
But familiar, and missed, and something I'd wanted to find.
"It is the pocket watch that Ronan Luzarak used."
The pocket watch that Auntie Diana had given me as a gift.
"Eliarnes. I do not know why you use a pocket watch in this day and age, but you seemed to like pocket watches. So I chose one from among the treasures I, the Flame Emperor, cherish. On the outside, it looks old, ugly, and broken, but no. It actually had been broken."
Its absence had left me feeling empty. Without that heavy, ugly watch I'd always carried in my breast, I'd felt empty.
Whenever I looked at a clock, it was a habit to rummage through my breast and check it.
So I'd had a new pocket watch custom-made.
I didn't like it. The texture and the feel of use were different.
Still, I'd had no choice but to grit my teeth and use it.
And then, someday.
The pocket watch I'd resolved to search for at least once, just in case, was right in front of my eyes.
The Flame Emperor handed over the pocket watch with careful hands.
I received it with trembling hands.
"However, I, the Flame Emperor, fixed it. I did not apply any particular magical treatment. I repaired it so that the second hand, minute hand, and hour hand move by the watch's own power. Nor is there any other suspicious magic placed upon it. So please, use it without worry."
"...Is it all right... for you to give me something like this?"
"It is fine. No, rather, it should be seen as having returned to its original owner. All the treasures in my possession are kept for that purpose. To distribute them to the descendants of the Heroes of old, or to descendants directly connected to them."
Another goofy, beaming smile spread across the Flame Emperor's face.
"And if, by one chance in ten thousand, by one chance in ten million, I am able to meet the other Heroes who must surely still be alive somewhere, I, the Flame Emperor, will return all of this to the Heroes."
"...Didn't you call them treasures?"
"They are treasures. Treasures that might, perhaps, connect me, the Flame Emperor, to the Heroes. But these treasures must have been treasures to the Heroes as well. Even if they were nothing more than worthless odds and ends, I, the Flame Emperor, will not leave behind any greed. If only I could meet the Heroes, that alone would be enough. However... Ronan Luzarak, I cannot meet. Therefore, I thought to give Ronan Luzarak's treasures to a descendant who inherited his history."
The Flame Emperor's hand—not just her fingers, but her whole hand—gestured toward me. That gesture was steeped in deep respect.
"And I have met that descendant. A descendant who bears the name of Arisa Eustetia and has inherited the great history of Ronan Luzarak. For me, the Flame Emperor, I am certain that today will be a happier and more rewarding day than any other."
I couldn't understand the Flame Emperor's thoughts, actions, or expressions.
Why would she give back the things she'd spent her whole life scouring the Demon World to find?
She could make an astronomical amount of money selling just one of those. So why on earth?
"Do you... like the Heroes that much?"
"I admire the Heroes. I revere them, like them, love them, and dream of them. Eliarnes. What of you?"
"Me? I... well, I like them too."
"As I thought."
The Flame Emperor laughed as clearly as a child.
"Today will be a day when all my past hardships are rewarded."