The Moon and the Sun
"We will now begin the hearing to establish the facts surrounding Normal Class cadet Lee Tae-hyun's subjugation of a higher-rank monster."
A solemn air hung over the council chamber of Etrun.
I had been forcibly seated in the center of the room, surrounded by knights on every side.
Apparently, only personnel affiliated with the academy were supposed to attend a hearing like this—but then again—
"In this particular case, we are joined by the first witnesses: Sir Chadwick of the White Sun Knights and Lady Lunan of the Black Moon Knights."
Those two knights had been brought in as well. The "first witness" excuse sounded like a convenient pretext, if you asked me.
No way Balrok actually counts as a higher-rank monster.
I'd figured he'd rate upper-intermediate at best.
While I sat quietly, organizing my thoughts, the knights carried the proceedings along on their own.
"First, the examination results confirm that the monster discovered at the site was a demon."
"A—a demon, you say?!"
"Weren't all the demons exterminated three hundred years ago?"
So it seemed demons weren't exactly a common sight. The moment that word left the examiner's mouth, the chamber erupted into an uproar.
"The seal in the mountains was broken for unknown reasons, and the demon sealed three hundred years ago awoke..."
Chadwick tapped the table lightly with his finger before speaking.
"And you killed that demon. Correct?"
"That is correct."
I made no effort to bring up the fact that I was the one who had broken the seal. After all, the fact that no one had discovered it until now was reason enough to keep quiet.
Considering I'd used barrier magic—expanded my domain.
Explaining all of that in detail sounded like a headache. It was simpler to say the seal had simply worn away with time and given out.
"I find that explanation rather difficult to believe."
"Believe it or not, what does it matter? I'm the one who caught it."
"Did you, perhaps, make a pact with the demon? Offering it the corpse in exchange for your soul?"
"Are you out of your mind?"
Why on earth would I do something like that?
"You there! Watch your tongue!"
"Oh, so I'm supposed to sit there quietly while you slander me with accusations of selling my soul to a demon?"
"W-well, that is..."
"No, come to think of it, something about this whole thing is strange."
The mood in the room had been drifting in a strange direction for a while now. Time to grab the reins.
"What you knights should be discussing right now isn't fact-finding. It's my compensation."
"What did you say?"
"I step up, the demon gets resurrected, the whole world nearly goes under, and I save everyone's hides. And instead of even letting me catch my breath, you've kept me cooped up in this chamber for hours without so much as a bathroom break?"
It was like pulling a man out of a river, only to pin the drowning on him as the culprit. They should've been pressing a fortune into my hands, and even that would've been light.
"This treatment is rather displeasing. Quite seriously so."
"How boldly the traitor who made a pact with a demon shouts!"
A familiar knight shot to his feet, shoving his chair back.
"It was suspicious from the start! How does a Normal Class cadet gain that kind of strength overnight?! If he made a pact with a demon, it all adds up!"
Rex pressed his case against me with a vicious sneer.
"Everyone! The man before you is a demon's follower, a servant who sold his—"
"Can you take responsibility for those words?"
It wasn't me who cut him off.
"L-Lady Lunan?!"
"I asked whether you can take responsibility for calling this child a demon follower."
Lunan of the Black Moon Knights tilted her head slightly, fixing Rex with a stare.
"Sir Knight, are you familiar with the reason the Black Moon Knights were founded?"
"I... er, that is..."
"It was to hunt demons. The ones that appeared suddenly in this world three hundred years ago."
That was probably the era when the Demon Monarch was born, and the demons capable of crossing dimensions fled elsewhere.
"When you get down to it, every one of us is a demon hunter. So to carelessly brand someone a demon follower in front of a room full of such people... I trust you understand what that means?"
Lunan drew a small bottle from within her armor, a faint smile on her lips.
"What's inside this bottle is holy water. It reacts violently at the mere presence of demonic taint."
Pop!
The stopper came free with a cheerful little sound.
"I am now going to pour this over Cadet Lee Tae-hyun. If there's a reaction, he will receive the punishment a demon follower rightfully deserves. But—"
Her eyes narrowed, turning unsettlingly cold. At the end of that gaze stood Rex.
"If there is no reaction, I will arrest you for incitement and sowing disorder."
"Wh-what?!"
"L-Lady Lunan! Isn't that going too far...?!"
"In matters concerning demons, nothing is too far for the Black Moon."
Given that she was apparently senior enough to teach at the kingdom's finest academy, she must have held a fairly high position.
And she'd arrest a man on the spot, just like that?
She was quite the fiery one.
Wobble, wobble.
Over my head, the water clung to the very edge of surface tension, teetering. One more tilt, and a single drop would fall straight onto my forehead.
And if it did—
That knight's life would be over on the spot.
"What will you do, Senior Knight Rex?"
"I... I..."
After a long stretch of cold sweat, his whole body went slack.
"...I withdraw my claim."
"Withdraw what, exactly?"
"My opinion... that Cadet Lee Tae-hyun is a demon follower..."
"So if you say it didn't happen, it's as if it never did?"
Lunan pressed the stopper back onto the holy water as she spoke.
"You will offer a formal apology."
"M-me? Apologize?"
"Well, naturally."
She had a point. He'd thrown around a slur that could have gotten someone witch-hunted, their life ruined over an accusation of demon worship. It couldn't just be swept under the rug with a casual "oh well, never mind."
"I am a senior knight! You would have me bow my head to a mere Normal Class cadet?!"
"Then I suppose there's nothing to be done."
She lifted the stopper again.
"Refusing to apologize means refusing to admit fault. Which is to say, you still stand by your accusation. I believe that's a fair interpretation?"
"Th-that's absurd..."
"So. Will you apologize?"
Rex bit down on his lip hard enough to draw blood, and finally stepped out in front of me.
"...I wasn't... in the wrong..."
With the slightest dip of his head, an apology crawled out from between clenched teeth. A grudging non-apology, dripping with reluctance.
He calls this an apology?
Honestly, better to refuse it outright. So I decided to send it back for a refund.
"Sorry? What was that?"
"Mmrphrd..."
"I can't hear a single word."
"I'm... sorry...!"
"Must be my ears. They've been going funny lately..."
When a defective product arrives, you return it and wait for a replacement. Simple as that.
"I'm sorry! Happy now?!"
"Your apology lacks sincerity. Beg a little harder!"
"Ughhnnngh!"
"Ohhhh? I should just douse you in the holy water, huh? Give you a nice, full holy-water shower?"
He'd clearly understood exactly who would be ruined if that holy water came pouring down.
A little more genuine feeling crept into Rex's apology than before.
"I was wrong! I tried to brand you a demon follower without any cause!"
"And let's not forget looking down on Normal Class and openly favoring Royal Class. Apologize for that too."
"You—!"
"Sir Knight, hand me that holy water, would you? My throat's getting dry from all this."
"Nnnngh! Fine!"
At long last, that oh-so-proud spine of his bent.
"I looked down on you for being Normal Class! I slandered you, I discriminated against you, and I branded you a demon follower! I apologize for all of it!"
"Hmm... seventy-five points. Just barely a pass."
Clap clap clap!
I applauded.
"What are you all doing? Applaud."
The knights stiffened, glancing at one another. The first to join in was—
"Mm. A fine apology indeed."
Clap clap clap!
Lunan. Only then did the rest begin to clap, one by one.
Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap!
Senior Knight Rex—showered in applause for having so honorably apologized to the Normal Class cadet he'd once scorned.
The hearing wrapped up quickly after that.
My subjugation of a higher-rank monster was officially recognized, at least for now. As for the actual compensation, they would determine it through internal deliberations and inform me later—that much was settled for the moment. And with a little holy water trickled into my palm, my innocence was cleanly confirmed as well.
"Gghk...!"
Rex, whose face had been burning red throughout the entire hearing, was the first to storm out of the chamber. The other knights filed out after him.
"Now then. Let's change the subject."
Three of us remained: me, Chadwick, and Lunan. What came next was obvious.
"You. How about joining our knight order?"
A recruitment offer. My very own.
"Wasn't this supposed to be a recommendation letter?"
"Oh, that was when you'd killed an upper-intermediate monster. You took down a higher-rank one, remember? So you deserve a reward to match."
Lunan tilted her head with a sly look.
"I really don't make offers like this often, you know? I'm doing it because it's you."
"Hmmm."
Well, I had to play hard to get at least once.
"This is out of order."
That was when Chadwick cut in between us.
"If we're making recruitment offers, shouldn't I go first?"
"What kind of absurd nonsense is that, Sir Chadwick?"
"I was the one who first extended a recommendation letter to this cadet."
That much was true. It had been Chadwick who first promised to write me one for slaying an upper-intermediate monster or above.
"First—if any of this business with the demon caused you discourtesy, I apologize."
"No, it's fine."
"Then I, too, shall offer you entry into the White Sun."
His offer had leapt well past a mere recommendation letter, too.
"If you truly slew that monster alone, and with room to spare... then I have no intention of treating you as a mere soldier of my 3rd Division. I intend to place you in a position worthy of your abilities."
"And that position would be—specifically?"
"I intend to seat you as Vice-Captain of the 3rd Division."
"V-Vice-Captain?!"
Lunan's eyes went wide with shock.
"Have you lost your mind, Sir Chadwick?! Sitting a cadet in a vice-captain's seat right away, of all things?!"
"Not immediately, of course. But I promise you this: within three months at the latest, the vice-captaincy will be yours."
Three months. Presumably, he'd calculated it as the minimum time needed to let internal resentment die down.
"I have a question."
"Anything."
"If I become vice-captain, may I have an audience with Prince Theo?"
The White Sun Knights were led by the First Prince, Theo, as their captain. It might be the closest option yet to my original goal of getting near the prince.
"That depends on your capabilities, but it is entirely possible."
What he really meant was this:
Not impossible.
But I'd have to show major achievements, deeds that caught the prince's eye, before he'd even deign to meet my gaze.
Three months to vice-captain, plus a suitably impressive showing on top of that?
The numbers didn't add up. From what I'd gathered, there wasn't much time left before the Great Coronation.
Grempel couldn't even finish his own coronation.
This world's destruction wasn't far off. There was no leisure to sit around waiting.
"Hmm..."
While I turned it all over in my head, Lunan grew antsy and threw in more.
"Aaargh! Th-then how about this? Join the Black Moon, and I'll grant you a fixed salary fifteen percent above average through a special recommendation!"
"So the best you can manage is such a base little money game."
"What did you say?!"
With that, it spiraled into a petty squabble, but I paid it no mind and kept weighing my options.
The safe bet is the White Sun.
Freely promising a vice-captain's seat was one thing—I could feel, firsthand, just how highly he rated me.
And the salary means nothing; I won't be spending money in here anyway.
All things considered, the White Sun still seemed the easier path to meeting the prince. Though I had no idea yet which order held Grempel.
If I can't have both, then—
Better to at least secure one of them for certain, no?
"I've decided."
Where I was headed was—
Ding!
A new objective has been set.