The Hero Party: Selen and Breni (2)
"So you've finally shown your true colors."
The startled Hero leveled her sword at me, the blade sheathed in a quietly rippling platinum Aura.
"What have you done to the Great Warrior?"
Nothing. I'd been keeping him safe so he wouldn't go on a rampage.
"Selen, what's wrong? Clitia's a good person. I haven't known her long, but I'm sure of it."
"......"
The Hero's expression grew even graver.
"You've approached the Sage as well? What is your goal?!"
I just want to lose to you guys after you've grown strong enough.
She looked so deadly serious that I kept my mouth shut. Not that I'd planned on telling the truth anyway.
"If you continue to say nothing, I will resort to force."
She knew she was no match for me, and she didn't care. She was still going to stand against me. That mindset of hers was as satisfying as ever.
I didn't mind being branded as a villain in the Hero's eyes. That way, she'd throw everything she had at me. But right now, getting the Great Warrior back to normal took priority.
"The Great Warrior is inside."
I stepped aside from the doorway and pointed into the room. A rest stop we'd been using temporarily — a house left empty after its easygoing owner had died and abandoned it.
"Go in and see for yourself."
On the way here, she would have had plenty of chances to observe how a Corpse Locust's host moved. This one was still alive, but the movements weren't all that different. A Hero ought to figure out the condition pretty quickly.
"Sage, please come here."
Sensing the uneasy atmosphere, Breni quietly stuck close to the Hero's side. Then the two of them went inside together.
Aren't you a little worried?
"Don't say things like that."
I hoped the misunderstanding would clear up smoothly. I had no interest in pointless conflict. I'd been so buried in my own problems that I hadn't even gotten a proper rest.
A short while later, the Hero emerged from the house, her face set like stone.
"...I will not forgive you."
Of all the possible outcomes, it seemed we'd taken the worst one.
"I have no more respect left to give you."
Her face was steeped in rage and betrayal. The Hero had even dropped the honorifics she always used, fully shifting into combat mode. Far from resolving anything, the situation had gotten even more tangled. She wasn't in any mood to listen to words, so I changed tactics and looked for a better way through.
"If you've got a grievance against evil, then pass judgment."
I'd just let her come at me and knock her down. To untangle this knotted thread, I needed to cool the anger she had directed at me.
"Don't just run your mouth. Try and take me down."
"I was going to do that whether you said so or not."
Unfazed, the Hero raised one hand toward the sky.
"O Sun, I shall burn my enemy with your scorching flames."
A fierce light descended vertically from the heavens and was absorbed into the Hero's body. A holy incantation — not just a simple physical enhancement through Holy Power, but a genuine technique. She could already use something like this. As expected, her command of Holy Power was beyond reproach.
But this wasn't the time to be grading her.
"Glorious honor unto the Goddess. And unto me, a shining victory!"
The Hero swung her sword at me with ferocious force — a slash aimed straight at my neck. She'd have improved since last time, so I'd need to actually defend. That was what I thought as I moved to block with Aura—
"Wait!"
Breni's voice stopped the Hero in her tracks.
"Don't do that to an innocent person!"
"...What are you saying? Did you not see what became of the Great Warrior with your own eyes?"
"Clitia didn't do that."
At last, the defense had arrived. A little late, but I was grateful she was speaking up now.
"It's the work of a villain who steals other people's bodies and makes them do terrible things!"
...Something felt off.
"Sage, please explain in detail."
"A villain who looked just like mist appeared and took control of Clitia's body once."
She was talking about the little play we'd put on at the Magic Tower. I hadn't expected her to bring that up now.
"Clitia, you came all the way here to get revenge on that villain, right?"
What was I supposed to do? As I hesitated, Sun-bask quietly offered an answer.
Just go with the flow.
It was advice I had no desire to refuse.
"I followed the traces of the bastard who toyed with me, and when I got here, the Great Warrior was like that."
"......"
The Hero just blinked blankly for a long time.
"Can you do it?"
Selen asked quietly, addressing the back of Breni's head as the Sage concentrated.
"His mind and body are completely taken over. If I pull it out, he'll die!"
The reply came back cheerfully. The content itself, however, was grim.
"Is there no way at all?"
"Hmm. I'll give it a try."
Breni studied the fairy, who was thrashing like a mad dog against the ropes that bound him. She seemed like a child most of the time, but in moments like this she was surprisingly bold.
"Ah, I need to concentrate, so go outside."
Selen was banished from the wooden house. When she stepped out, Clitia — sitting back against a pile of firewood — waved a hand.
"You've got a lot of questions, don't you?"
"......"
Of course she did. They'd been piling up and piling up.
"I'll answer anything. Go ahead."
"What is your relationship with the Sage?"
The question shot out immediately.
"You figured it out last time. I went to her to offer some instruction."
"Why would you do such a thing?"
"I just felt like it."
As expected, she was a Public Enemy whose thinking defied ordinary comprehension.
"So you two became close then?"
"She was scared of me at first, but before I knew it she liked me. Unlike you, she's pretty innocent."
The Sage was terribly shy around strangers, but once someone met her standards, she opened her heart quickly. Selen had become close with her through a similar process, so there was no need to question whether it was true.
"You said your body was taken over."
"...I did."
"Who is this villain who could so easily control someone as powerful as you?"
The answers that had been coming so freely faltered. A brief silence passed before the words started flowing again.
"Kbalt, one of the Demon King's Four Heavenly Kings."
"......"
It was a name so unexpected it made her recoil in shock.
"Wasn't that demon killed years ago?"
"The previous Hero and I took him down."
"Then... he's come back to life?"
"Probably."
Selen swallowed, tense.
Kbalt, the Soul Binder. A demon who had once traveled the entire Empire, spreading terror and distrust. If he had truly been resurrected, it was a grave problem. Even the Banished Saintess had been unable to resist him.
"Did you truly come to the Western Region to stop Kbalt?"
"You think I didn't?"
"...I don't know."
She was so confused that even her judgment had gone hazy. Just what kind of person was the Banished Saintess? Hadn't she been a villain who slaughtered people for sport? Selen had thought she understood clearly — but in truth, she hadn't known a thing.
"Ask your next question."
"Are Kbalt and the Corpse Locusts connected?"
A mutant Corpse Locust was supposedly parasitizing the Great Warrior, who wasn't even dead. It had been hard to believe, but after hearing the story, there seemed to be some kind of connection.
"That I don't know."
Clitia averted her gaze, somehow. She looked like she knew something.
"You said I could ask anything, so why are you avoiding the answer?"
When Selen pressed her, Clitia just closed her eyes entirely. Was there a secret she wasn't supposed to know? The reaction only made Selen more curious.
"Allow me to explain that."
Someone suddenly joined the conversation. Selen looked toward the voice and found a middle-aged man in a purple robe.
"Deputy Tower Master?"
She couldn't recall his name, but she knew the mage's face well.
"Why are you here?"
"I came out to survey the situation in the Western Region and 'happened' to overhear your conversation."
A lie. She saw through it immediately, but decided to let it slide for now.
"What is it you intend to explain?"
"The truth the Banished Saintess is trying to hide."
The Deputy Tower Master cast a meaningful glance at Clitia before continuing.
"I'll start with the conclusion. The one who slew the Corpse Locusts' leader specimen was none other than the Banished Saintess."
"What?"
Selen looked at Clitia in surprise, but her eyes were still closed.
"And the one who greatly expanded the Corpse Locust swarm's territory is Kbalt."
"Do you have evidence?"
"Of course."
He was overflowing with confidence. His composed demeanor was so unlike his usual self that Selen wondered if this was even the same person.
"The time Kbalt was reported dead and the time the 'Nightmare of the West' began connect with uncanny precision. He must have barely survived and fled to the Western Region."
Selen searched her memory. The details were fuzzy, but it had definitely been around the same time.
"Kbalt is a master of dark magic — even the Banished Saintess was helpless against him. Dominating monsters would be a trivial feat for him, would it not?"
The Deputy Tower Master grew more and more excited, pleased with his own deduction.
"After seizing the Western Region with ordinary specimens, he must have begun experiments to create mutants!"
"Don't tell me... to push beyond the Great Mountain Range..."
"Exactly!"
The entire continent had nearly been overrun. All Selen could think was how fortunate they were.
"But the Banished Saintess, who had come to the Western Region tracking Kbalt's trail, found the leader specimen and destroyed it. Only she knows why."
Selen had a rough idea of the reason.
The Demon King. He was the one being who made all of the Banished Saintess's actions make sense.
The Banished Saintess had killed many people over the years — to ease the wounds the Demon King had left on her heart. And the Nightmare of the West was a catastrophe caused by Kbalt, a subordinate of that same Demon King. She couldn't possibly have stood for it.
"She hid the fact that she slew a Public Enemy because she had been excommunicated. A believer cast out by the Church must live as quietly as possible, after all."
The last remaining question had been answered.
"Do you have anything to say?"
Selen asked Clitia. The closed eyes opened.
"That's actually impressive."
A single remark that conceded everything.
I was speechless.
They'd just run with the story on their own, and before I knew it, Kbalt's resurrection had become an established fact.
See? You stayed quiet like I told you, and everything worked itself out. That was entertaining.
I'd found it interesting to listen to, sure. I just wasn't sure this was actually okay.
"Well then, I'll be on my way."
Having thoroughly shown off his mage-like imagination, the Deputy Tower Master vanished once more.
"I now understand how I should treat you."
The Hero, who had been lost in thought, approached me.
"The battle in which you taught me. The way you treated the Sage so kindly. The fact that you protected the Great Warrior. All of it pointed to one thing."
Two feet came to a stop right in front of me. A calm stride, carrying no hostility.
"What are you trying to say?"
"You want revenge on the Demon King, don't you?"
She was completely convinced. She already looked like she wouldn't hear a word I said, no matter what it was.
"But even your power isn't enough, so you're trying to help our Hero party grow stronger."
"No..."
"The slaughter you've committed until now must also be connected to the Demon King. Were they his followers, by any chance?"
I'd just gone looking for people I could lose to, and ended up killing them because they were broken human beings or pieces of trash. She was so earnest I couldn't bring myself to say it out loud.
"I apologize for misunderstanding you. You may have been excommunicated, but as the previous Saintess, you deserve to be treated with honor."
This wasn't good. She needed to see me as an evil being so she would try to slay me. If things kept going this way, I was in trouble.
"I'm not as good a person as you think I am."
"Heh. You really aren't honest, are you? There's no need to be embarrassed."
In that moment, my instincts whispered to me. It was already far too late to turn this back.
"Please allow me to apologize for my discourtesy until now."
"...Forget it."
I was already miserable enough over the Goddess and Liam. Now the Hero was causing problems too. I genuinely wanted to just throw everything away.
From now on, you can just go back to being the Saintess you used to be!
Sun-bask's voice, thick with laughter, poured fuel on my already troubled heart.