The Salvation Ninja (4)
Meanwhile, at the temporary outpost outside Evergreen Village.
"What's going on? Vice-captain, explain."
Yugeomgyeong, who had just returned from patrol, directed the question at Leona, who was commanding from the front rank. The knights' stares, fixed so intently on a single point they seemed ready to bore a hole through it, carried an ominous weight.
"Captain. Over there."
As Yugeomgyeong drew up beside her, Leona pointed. An unidentified armed force on horseback was cutting across the open field, heading straight for the village. Their numbers looked to be at least three times the thirty knights of the Crimson Flame Dragon Order.
"Hard to be certain at this distance, but they don't appear to be wild tribesmen."
"They must have spotted us by now. Yet they aren't stopping."
"Shall I try shouting?"
"I'll handle it."
Yugeomgyeong drew a deep breath.
"We are the Crimson Flame Dragon Order! This village is currently under our protection! Who are you, and why do you approach?"
The booming voice rolled across the plain. The armed force halted. After a brief, whispered conference among themselves, one man stepped forward.
"The distance is too great! May we come a little closer?"
He flung both arms wide and bellowed. Yugeomgyeong exchanged a quick glance with Leona, then answered.
"Permission granted!"
At the word, the force advanced once more. The knights, tension never leaving them, watched the newcomers carefully as they closed the gap. Every one of them, including the man who had shouted, wore black leather armor. Emblazoned on each chest was the image of a red whale.
Beneath the emblem ran the motto: "Learn from the past, serve the present, and advance toward the future." In the entire kingdom, only one organization used that slogan.
"Red Whale Magic Tower personnel. What business brings them all the way out to a backwater like this..."
It was Leona who spoke. The Red Whale Magic Tower was a colossal organization that stood as equal partners with the Sword Saint Society, the power that held the kingdom in its grip. Yugeomgyeong's brow furrowed; she had never once come away better for dealing with them.
"My, my—if it isn't Yugeomgyeong herself! What brings so distinguished a personage to a humble place like this?"
The middle-aged man who had shouted dismounted and approached at a leisurely pace. His carefully groomed goatee suited his sly features perfectly.
"Hello there! Warrior, explorer, and mage—Beldergard Samucho, at your service! Third-rank staff of the Red Whale Magic Tower! Come now—handshake!"
Yugeomgyeong regarded the offered hand with cool indifference. His light, flippant manner grated on her.
"And the soldiers behind you? The Tower's private troops?"
Her hand never left the hilt of her sword. Beldergard, reading the room, withdrew his own.
"Ah, these fellows! Completely slipped my mind to introduce them. This is the Rehabilitation Corps. Every last one was a vicious criminal—bandits, seditionists, royal slanderers, spreaders of falsehoods—but after receiving the Tower's devoted instruction, they have been reborn. What are you waiting for? The knights are on edge—dismount! And set your weapons down!"
The so-called Rehabilitation Corps obeyed without the slightest disorder.
"See? Perfectly 'educated.' Look into their eyes! Aren't they brimming with the righteous desire to make the world a better place?"
Yugeomgyeong met each of their gazes in turn. The eyes of the Rehabilitation Corps members were dull as ink. She had seen that look countless times on the battlefield—the eyes of killers whose humanity had been castrated, reduced to mere tools of slaughter.
Righteousness, my ass. She sighed and turned back to Beldergard.
"What is your business here? This place is under threat from the wild tribes. If you haven't come to help, you'd best take another road."
"Wild tribes? We saw none of them on the way here... Perhaps they've already fled? Even those uncivilized brutes must have heard of the Crimson Flame Dragon Order's renown!"
"It isn't over until I've confirmed it with my own two eyes. State your business."
Under the continued pressure, Beldergard nodded. Even faced with Yugeomgyeong's icy demeanor, he never lost his smile—the mark of a thoroughly seasoned operator.
"We've come to issue an evacuation order for the village! A nest of bilixes has settled in a region not far from here!"
Bilixes—insectoid monsters that walked upright like humans. Centered around a queen, hundreds of individuals would gather and claim a territory. Their formidable reproductive power and ability to dominate an area made them one of the kingdom's highest-priority threats.
"Once the evacuation is complete, we planned to seal the region and burn them out! The damage would be considerable, but there's no other way... If Yugeomgyeong were to join the bilix subjugation, however, things would be different! The nearby residents wouldn't have to lose their homes! What do you say? Both the kingdom and the Tower will reward you handsomely!"
Yugeomgyeong fell into thought. If she left the village now, the wild tribes still lurking in hiding might launch their attack. Robin had gone to track them and had not yet returned; she could not rest easy.
"Worried about the village? Then we'll leave the Rehabilitation Corps behind! Say... about thirty of them? I'll vouch for their skill! Together with the mighty Crimson Flame Dragon Order, they'll be a formidable force!"
"Captain. It's a solid offer. Accept it. As long as we have the numbers, the wild tribes won't be a real problem. The bilixes are the more dangerous ones."
Between Beldergard's persuasion and Leona's agreement, Yugeomgyeong nodded.
"I'll join. Where is the location?"
"Excellent! I've marked it on this map. When shall we depart? Within two days at the latest..."
"We leave now. Come! Crimson Flash!"
With a soft pyoryong-pyoryong, a spirit steed materialized. Yugeomgyeong snatched the map from Beldergard's hand, mounted, and galloped away. The flustered Beldergard let out a hollow laugh.
"Just as they say—impatient as ever. Kids! Move out! Follow Yugeomgyeong!"
The place you reach with courage holds no paradise.
Only a battlefield awaits.
"The shrine is dead. It's gone."
That was the only thing I could tell them.
"Impossible…!"
"Osuda…!"
"Bakuna..."
Saserif and the other wild tribespeople shed fat tears like patriots who had lost their nation. They clamped both hands over their mouths so the scouts wouldn't hear—a scene straight out of a masterpiece painting.
"They say even mountains and rivers change in a month."
Where their shrine should have stood, a beehive the size of an apartment building had grown. A yokai fortress completed by piling beeswax upon the bones of the shrine itself. Saserif had said it had been less than two months since she left the place, so I had let my guard down a little. Who could have guessed the yokai would already have finished the remodel?
We had come this far dodging the bee yokai that flapped two pairs of wings on patrol.
"Sa- sacred relic. Only sacred relic need. Inside shrine."
Saserif clutched my shoulder, flustered and urgent.
"Please. Shameless. But check. Want you check."
Her hands trembled with anxiety. The other tribespeople, who couldn't understand a word of what she was saying, nodded vigorously in agreement. The only one who could help them was me.
"Where is it?"
I had never planned to give up in the first place. Saserif's wavering face lit up at once. What had I even done to earn that much emotion already?
"Central room. Round like bead. Shine gold. Thank. Really thank. We draw eyes—"
"No need. Cleaner if I infiltrate alone. Save the thanks for when it's over."
I was a professional Runaway Ninja now. I shot her a resolute look.
"Stay hidden. I'll go take a look."
"Understand. Thank."
I gave a quick wave to Saserif, who kept repeating "thank" like an automaton, then activated Floating Shadow and crawled across the ground toward the hive. Ninja chameleon mode—first time in a while. The mountain was thick with undergrowth, perfect for camouflage.
Wiiiiing—
The hovering bee yokai were staring off at distant peaks. Busy bees, no time to notice a thing, I guess. I scuttled like a Komodo dragon and pressed myself against the hive wall. Height was roughly thirty meters. Made of beeswax, so it didn't feel solid like brick. Closest comparison? Plastic, maybe. Durability I could smash through if it came to it. Escape wouldn't be a problem.
I looked up to pick an entrance. Windows everywhere. Hexagonal openings clustered thick as on any Earth beehive. With this many, any one of them should lead toward the center. I simply chose the nearest.
The faintly sticky jelly smeared around the edges of the opening was seriously unpleasant, but I forced myself through. What even was this jelly? Bug soul food? Waste? Or... semen? All of the above? Too disgusting to keep thinking about, so I stopped.
- beeeee….
- Waspppp….
Inside the small chamber I had entered, three bee yokai were chatting. Up close, the uncanny valley hit even harder. Bald heads—congenital male-pattern baldness, guaranteed—with compound eyes and mouths split left and right jammed onto the faces of men and women. Only the underlings of the Sixth Heavenly Demon King of the Desire Realm could look that goddamn ugly.
Nothing else in the room. Perfect timing.
"Hey, bees."
Before they could turn around—
"You're dead."
My ninja blade took all three heads in one sweep.
Slash!
Their skin was covered in shell, but the durability was nothing special. Boarusa hide was tougher. Clear blood poured from their necks and soaked the floor. Mixed in was a sticky green fluid—maybe they'd eaten something wrong—but it didn't seem important, so I started to move past—
"Nin?"
I stopped and looked again. Yokai. Green. Konjac.
If my memory served, this was the poison konjac used in Goldon. Were these bastards close relatives of Heiner?
The thought that Delbanas, who had vanished leaving only ashes, might be plotting something flickered through my mind for a second—but the odds were low, so I discarded it. Things in this world never flow that conveniently.