Chapter 143 — Just Bad Luck (3)
"How did this... happen."
Roan's voice trembled with fury.
The 'Overwhelm' that leaked out no matter how hard he tried crushed everyone's heads toward the ground.
From the pale-faced Lord of the East Yellow Territory, who had rushed over upon hearing the news,
to Diobe and the old man, sunken in grief,
the terrified humans,
and even the demons with bewildered faces.
Roan seethed with rage.
"Explain!"
A roar like a howl echoed across the clearing in the predawn darkness.
The 'Overwhelm' surged outward like a tide.
Amplified through more training than in the past, the force of 'Overwhelm' began to tighten around everyone's throats.
"Hrk... ugh..."
"Urgh..."
Sighs and groans rose from all around.
Only then did Roan regain a sliver of his senses and, barely suppressing his anger, rein in 'Overwhelm'.
It wouldn't do to browbeat them without yet knowing whose fault this was.
After waiting for everyone to catch their breath, Roan asked again, his voice still unsteady.
"How did this happen, I asked."
Despite trembling like an aspen leaf at the growling voice, it was Diobe who answered.
"Your Majesty... we believe they may have been... lured away."
"...Lured away, you say."
Fire seemed to flash in Roan's eyes.
Everyone who had been slightly raising their heads to steal glances at the conversation between Diobe and Roan flinched and bowed them again.
Among them, the one who—with a relatively composed expression, merely somewhat pale—knelt and listened closely to their exchange was the Duke.
"Someone went to fetch water and didn't return, so we went looking and found them. There were no discernible traces along the way."
"Are you saying they were dragged all the way to this remote spot without a scream, a sound, or any resistance?"
"...Yes. Either there was an overwhelming difference in power... or it was a foe deliberate enough to silence them... Your Majesty."
Roan ground his teeth.
He had worried that disgruntled demons might band together and storm the human quarters or march in to demand answers.
He had ordered the knights to guard the quarters, but he hadn't considered that someone might step outside of their own accord and meet with an accident.
An ambush on a solitary person...
Roan let out a sigh.
His agitated heart would not be calmed.
Even in Basel, such a thing had never happened.
Humans, who received no protection from the System,
were helpless in Evirgio.
When the person didn't return, Diobe had asked the knights for help in searching. The knights had seemed displeased, but it had been Diobe's request, whom the Duke had ordered to be treated as a guest.
Reluctantly, they deployed soldiers to find the missing young man.
And the young man who had been sharing his agricultural knowledge was found in a corner of a secluded clearing, his limbs brutally torn off. In the end, part of his thigh was never recovered.
"...Is there anyone you suspect?"
The Grand Duke's amber eyes glinted with a bluish killing intent. But Diobe shook her head.
"I do not know, Your Grace. Everyone labored hard today, so there were no incidents that could be called clashes."
"Then I shall have to question them all, one by one."
As Roan stood there blankly,
the Lord of the East Yellow Territory straightened up.
After all, the host of this territory was the Duke,
and this unsavory incident, which had happened to honored guests and while the Emperor's gift was being implemented, was his responsibility.
The Duke's killing intent was terrifying, even if it fell short of Roan's 'Overwhelm'.
Once he confirmed that Roan wasn't stopping him, the Lord of the East Yellow Territory stood before the assembled demons.
"Which bastard did this crazy thing?!"
The Duke burst out in fury.
Naturally, there was no answer.
Nor had the Duke expected one.
"Was it you?"
Instead, the Duke decided to work his way through them one by one.
He grabbed the demon at the very front by the collar and hauled him up.
The imp, who had been groveling on the ground and was yanked up to the Duke's eye level in an instant, flailed about.
"Gack, n-no! Your Grace! I..."
"Next."
The Duke didn't even wait for the imp to finish. He slammed him back to the ground and pulled the next one's face close.
He couldn't lift a minotaur by the scruff of its neck, but he could yank it toward him. The Duke glared up at the minotaur—whose chest was level with his own head—with a chilly gaze.
The minotaur could hear the low, rumbling growl in the Duke's throat. Despite his massive bulk, he trembled and barely managed to shake his head.
The Duke repeated the process.
Watching him question and threaten nearly thirty demons in succession, Roan realized something.
It seemed the Duke also possessed a skill similar to 'Insight'.
If that were so, the Duke would have figured it out just as Roan had.
"Duke. That's enough."
"...Your Majesty."
"They did not do this."
That the culprit was not here.
The Lord of the East Yellow Territory stared at Roan with a baffled expression, then, without warning, his face twisted into a demonic grimace as he glared at the demons.
Even though their innocence had been established, the demons still trembled before the Lord of the East Yellow Territory, unable to utter a word in their defense.
They had long heard from their families about the Duke's violent nature—how he showed no restraint, be it toward a lord, a city mayor, or a chieftain.
Realizing that the Emperor's words had just spared their lives, the demons swallowed their sighs inwardly.
"Are there any traces of an intrusion from outside?"
At Roan's question, Yurus, the scar-faced knight, startled and answered. He had been the first to discover and report the body. His breathing was ragged, as if he, too, was at a loss in this bewildering situation.
"That is... all the soldiers were deployed to guard the quarters, so... my apologies."
"Are you telling me that an outsider or a demon beast may have harmed the human?"
Hearing the Emperor's low voice, the knights of the East Yellow Territory flinched and shrank back.
The security around the area where the Emperor was staying had not been properly maintained. This was a monumental blunder.
Yurus's hands, as he held the highest rank among the knights present, could be seen trembling violently.
"We will investigate."
If there truly was a demon beast roaming about,
was it something to be relieved about that only a thigh had gone missing? Could the person have vanished entirely, their body never even found?
Roan's mind was tangled in knots.
"Your Grace."
As soon as the knight finished speaking, Diobe addressed the Lord of the East Yellow Territory.
The Duke, still unable to fully suppress his killing intent, looked at Diobe with a ferocious glare.
Yet Diobe's voice sounded calmer than anyone else's there.
The Grand Duke's eyes met hers, and the snarl on his lips tightened firmly shut.
With a considerably subdued look, the Grand Duke asked Diobe,
"Speak."
"Please allow us to wear swords."
"...Swords."
The Duke's face, which had seemed to be calming, turned menacing once more, and all the demons grimaced as well.
But Diobe answered in an undaunted voice.
"This is not to suspect or harm anyone. These humans are under my supervision, and I must protect their lives. Should a demon beast appear, we have no means to resist."
A growling sound rumbled again from the Duke's throat.
Diobe's words were entirely reasonable.
More than that, she hadn't even indicated she suspected anyone; she had merely requested a single sword in a calm voice.
The Duke glanced at the Emperor's face as if seeking permission, and Roan nodded.
"...Supply them."
"As of today, we will strengthen the perimeter patrol. Your Majesty, I am truly mortified."
The Duke apologized to the Emperor in a low voice, bowing his head repeatedly.
Then Roan answered in a long sigh, as if exhausted.
"Everyone except those who must handle this matter, return to your quarters. Tomorrow, you must work again at dawn."
The Lord of the East Yellow Territory and Diobe hesitated and stared at the Emperor. Roan's words were surprising, but they could understand.
This was an experiment concerning the future.
It couldn't be delayed by even a single day.
Thus, apart from the Duke, the knights, and the soldiers, the demon delegates and the humans returned to their quarters.
As could readily be expected,
the atmosphere the next day was a complete mess.
It had been a dawn that no one could sleep through properly.
The demons, for their part, had been forced to suspect one another,
and the humans, for theirs, had spent the night trembling in fear.
In the midst of all this, only Roan and the old man appeared relatively composed.
"Hey, if you're done with that, go help over where they look shorthanded. Don't just stand there gawking."
At the old man's scolding,
a handful of demons who had gathered to whisper with worried looks now wore hostile faces. But without a word, they headed toward where the old man had pointed.
Since Roan was also silently clearing stones and pulling weeds, the demons had no choice but to say nothing and work.
After clearing the stones from his assigned section, Roan straightened his back for the first time in a long while and looked around.
The surroundings, once littered with stones and weeds, had been upturned into soil and now looked like a much cleaner empty field than at the start.
'How interesting.'
And Roan suddenly realized that the old man was also inspecting the section Roan had been responsible for.
Before Roan could react,
the old man walked closer.
He had come to personally examine the soil from which Roan had removed stones and weeds.
A look of satisfaction rose in the old man's eyes as he saw the results of Roan's work up close.
"You've labored hard, Your Majesty. Well done."
"Akerman. Are you all right?"
Roan spoke to him.
The old man, who had been examining the soil, bowed his head.
"What can be done? At my age, one becomes detached from both gain and loss. It's regrettable that a lad with his whole future ahead lost his life, but what can you do...?"
His voice seemed indifferent at a glance, but through 'Attentive Hearing', Roan could feel the full weight of his grief.
Unknowingly, Roan bowed his own head.
"It was already a miracle that we were brought here as prisoners and survived. If only he could have held on until the war's end... why would Heaven take a lad like that and leave a decrepit old man like me...?"
The regret he hadn't revealed to anyone spilled out toward Roan. Roan and the old man remained silent for a long while. Then the old man, who had been squatting wordlessly, examining and fingering the soil, suddenly bowed his head again as if startled.
"Oh dear, my apologies, Your Majesty. I overstepped my bounds and spoke out of turn..."
"It is fine."
Roan waved his hand dismissively.
"The humans must be very anxious."
The old man turned his head toward where Roan was looking.
In the distance, a human could be seen approaching a few demons working the field, only to shake their head and retreat alone.
The humans had suddenly become afraid to speak to the demons.
They had no way to determine the truth.
The Demon Emperor and the Duke had said that the demons here to learn farming were blameless,
but nobles were on the side of nobles.
Wouldn't Merde and Evirgio be any different? the humans thought.
No matter how much they trusted the Emperor, the world they had seen was like that.
The humans still believed that someone among the demons had harmed the human, and so their attitude today was different from yesterday.
Silence had replaced active instructions and advice.
The old man's deeply furrowed brow grew even more creased.
"How could they not be anxious? Still, I'm just an old man with few days left to live, but those young ones... yes, I worry for them..."
Roan's face darkened as well.
Like the calm before a storm,
the quiet air stung with prickling unease.
And so the uncomfortable days passed, one by one.
Because everyone worked without opening their mouths, the land-clearing project for the practice field was remarkably finished in just four days.
A task accomplished solely by human and demon hands, without machines or demon beasts.
It was an astonishing achievement, but no one could openly express joy.
On the afternoon the land-clearing was fully complete,
Roan skipped the afternoon class and brought the old man and a few humans with him to scatter the crystal powder.
'No matter how much knowledge I gain, working outside is just better than sitting in class. Can't help it.'
Skipping the class gave Roan a secret pleasure—even though he was doing other work—and he hid his laughter inside. It was a rare change of mood after days of gloom and frustration.
To the humans, the crystal powder only looked like differently colored soil. So they couldn't quite understand why the Emperor was doing this himself and forbidding anyone else from approaching.
When they heard it was a magical soil that could restore the land, the humans grew even more curious,
but Roan made absolutely sure that the humans never touched the crystal powder directly.
"You missed that spot, yes, right behind there."
"You've skipped over that part, too."
Though the humans had grown wary of unfamiliar demons, they spared no nagging for the relatively familiar Roan. The unusual spectacle unfolded of them treating the highest-ranking person with the greatest casual ease.
Roan didn't have to personally scatter the crystal powder across this entire space, which was as large as the Imperial Garden.
Once a fast result was obtained using a magic tool, the practitioners in shielding suits could take over the scattering as part of their practical training.
However, even the area the demon delegates would cultivate as part of their education was considerably vast. Roan spent the entire day doing nothing but scattering crystal powder.
And the next day,
the humans couldn't help but marvel despite the lingering awkwardness.
"Incredible..."
The normally hale Akerman's voice trembled, a rare occurrence.