The Black Death (3)
The Black Death (3)
A few days later, Kleis returned to her father's study.
"So, have you decided?"
"Yes."
Kleis straightened her collar and continued.
"I will return to the battlefield."
To restore the family's honor, her father had given Kleis two choices. She had chosen the latter.
—Atone for your sins through military merit.
Merit. The sort of thing typically represented by wealth and fame. To put it more simply, merit was what a noble or knight received when their sovereign stamped an official "well done" on their record.
"So you aren't entirely incapable of understanding your father's words. Good. Don't die. Stay alive and come back."
What parent in the world would send their daughter off to war? Yet House Haspelt, where every member of the family was a soldier, was an exception. They all believed that slaughtering magic beasts on the battlefield was life's greatest achievement.
That was why Kleis had been able to rise to the position of heir over her many siblings. She had killed the most magic beasts and saved the most allies. Impressive enough on its own, but during her time as a war mage, she and her comrades had even broken through the First Defense Line. That single accomplishment had earned her a reward from the Emperor.
The 1st Defense Line was something even most mages couldn't penetrate. Beyond it, the proportion of Calamity-class magic beasts increased, and if your luck was bad, Extinction-class beasts began appearing in open battle.
Normally, humanity could advance no further and was forced to do nothing but defend. But no longer.
"I will break through the 3rd Defense Line."
Not the 2nd, but the 3rd. Such was the grandiose dream that had taken root in Kleis.
Realistically, the odds were low. It was practically the same as announcing she would drive straight into the heart of the Demon Continent and crush it. Kleis herself knew that, and so did her father.
"...The 3rd? Don't push yourself too far."
"It's fine. I have Flare."
Her father's brow furrowed. It was exactly the same habit Kleis used to express her own feelings.
"Losing the Flare patent was my mistake. But since that child released the patent to everyone, there is an upside as well."
As she spoke, Kleis set a heavy bag down in front of the desk. She pulled something out of it in large quantities and placed it on top.
Magic Paper. Reams and reams of it, containing top-grade scrolls that had already undergone etching and coating.
Estimating by eye, at least a thousand sheets. Overwhelmed by the sheer volume, Kleis's father dropped his Mana Cigarette onto the ashtray.
"Are those all Flare?"
"Yes. I spent the last few days making nothing else."
The quantity was absurd. Not a number one person could possibly produce in a week.
"You may still not believe it, Father. But I wanted to show you that I, as someone who completed Flare around the same time, am at least capable of this much."
"...Hmm."
"The money the family poured into developing Flare... I'll find a way to cover it with magic stones from the Calamity-class beasts we harvest on the front."
She had done a great deal of thinking while staying at the main house.
Whether she could simply copy the Flare inscription formula that had blown her own mental state apart in real time and use it, and whether, after being unjustly accused of plagiarism, she should follow every single thing written in Aether's paper. All of her worries connected back to one golden-eyed girl.
Be trapped by the timing, or shake off personal feelings and focus on efficiency.
Kleis had remained faithful to her duty. By following the freely distributed schematics and writing Flare Scrolls at high speed, she had arrived at this point.
'This ought to do it.'
Without another thought, she would overrun the Demon Continent decisively. Massively reduce the Calamity-class numbers, and if possible, take down even one Extinction-class. It was a plan they couldn't have dreamed of in the days before Flare.
"The patent was stolen, so you'll use it in battle to earn merit... A judgment I've been most eager to see."
Having received the elder's approval, Kleis bowed her head and exited the study.
The study sank back into silence. Kleis's father, Renerwil Haspelt, tapped the ash from the cigar resting on the tray and fell deep into thought.
—Bzzz.
"Hm, the mosquitoes are already getting bold."
Renerwil flicked his wrist and created a small box of flame, trapping the mosquito that had been flying before his eyes. The metal insect roasted red-hot inside it, then expired without even leaving a handful of ash behind.
The incinerated remains drifted down, giving off the scent of iron. It was the smell of scorched earth he had encountered hundreds, thousands of times on the battlefield.
A familiar scent, for all that.
Yet, just a little.
"......."
Just a little, the carbon smell soaking into his lungs felt slightly different from before.
**
The halo around the moon dipped gently below the snowy peaks.
Before it stood a wall that rose as high as two grown men, the barrier that separated Haspelt Main House from the outside.
A single full moon, bright yellow as it swelled, and beyond it three or four clusters of the densely studded Milky Way. The starlight that made up the galaxy fleetingly called to mind the eyes of a favorite horse long gone.
It was distasteful to look at from that angle, yet beautiful things inevitably drew the eye. If she meant to spend her future rolling in the dirt with her face to the ground, she had to fill her eyes with the sky while she still could.
Then, amidst the sky, she met a pair of softly glowing sulfur-yellow beads. A sense of incongruity struck her, and Kleis's eyes shot wide open.
"Out for a stroll, are we?"
The voice reached her without warning. Every hair on her body stood on end at the unexpected sound.
"...Tide?"
And the word that leapt from Kleis's mouth was a surprise—so much so that even she herself was puzzled after speaking it.
A girl was sitting on the wall of the ducal residence. She fixed her eyes on Kleis, her pupils glowing as if they held the full moon within them. The girl's impression was uncannily identical to Aether's.
With a single exception—the color of her hair was white.
"Ha, Tide? The only tide I know is the one in 'tide and time.'"
"...This is the land of House Haspelt. Who dares sit atop the wall?"
"Ah... Right. It is dangerous to be up this high. But isn't scaling a wall a bit of fun?"
Even that short exchange was full of impertinent remarks. Kleis glared at the other party as if she meant to run her through with a sword. In response, the girl lifted her chin and looked down at Kleis.
The white-haired, golden-eyed girl was savoring the atmosphere atop the wall with the full moon at her back. She sat with one leg crossed, a Mana Cigarette in her mouth and an impudent expression on her face. Sensing an instinctive danger, Kleis took a step back and observed the situation.
"Are you a member of the Gold-Eye Tribe?"
"Can't you tell by looking?"
The girl let out a chuckle and took a long drag on her cigarette.
For a member of the Gold-Eye Tribe, who could not use magic on their own, smoking a Mana Cigarette was tantamount to casting some kind of spell. It was common knowledge that Kleis had grown familiar with over her long time with Aether.
Something was off. She had to be on guard.
Kleis condensed the element of fire in her hand. At the first sign of trouble, she fully intended to pull out her staff and crush the girl's head.
But contrary to expectations, the girl did nothing toward Kleis. She simply looked like she was smoking because her mouth was bored.
"Who are you?"
As she asked, Kleis swept her eyes over the mysterious girl's appearance.
There were three pieces of information she could obtain right away.
First, she was a member of the Gold-Eye Tribe. Second, she had white hair that fell to her waist.
And third, she was wearing clothes unseen in the Empire or among the elves.
The robe was a white that resembled the girl's hair, but it lacked a hood section that could be removed or worn like a hat. Its thickness was also on the thin side for a robe. No matter that it was summer, this was the north, a region dominated by a cold climate. Dressed like that, she was asking to catch a cold.
And yet the girl exhaled a stream of smoke without the slightest hint of being cold. After tapping at her cigarette for a moment, she flashed a sly smile and gave an odd answer to Kleis's question.
"Who am I... That's quite a philosophical question you're posing. Is it because this is the time when humans grow most emotional, and you hope to invite deep contemplation?"
"What are you talking about..."
"It's no fun if I just tell you. Who could I be? Try to guess."
Kleis could not determine her name, her origin, or what she was thinking. The major piece of information that she was a member of the Gold-Eye Tribe existed, but she seemed different from Aether in every aspect except her appearance.
"Did you come across the Elankaya Mountains?"
"Twenty questions! That's a decent strategy. Yes, my birthplace is the Elankaya mountain range. And?"
"You weren't captured by slavers either."
"Correct."
"Unlike the Golden-Eyes in the legends, you're exceedingly rude."
"...Rude?"
The girl's eyes, fixed on Kleis, sharpened at that point. The white-haired Gold-Eye Tribe hopped down from the wall and slowly walked toward Kleis.
"The rude ones are you lot, grabbing our compatriots and beating the hell out of them."
There was a strange, palpable killing intent laced into the words. Kleis, a survivor of hundreds of battles, could sense it instinctively.
"You know this is trespassing, yes? Leave at once, or I will impose sanctions."
"Try it if you can."
"What..."
The brazen attitude left Kleis dumbfounded.
Oral tradition held that the overwhelming majority of the Gold-Eye Tribe were obedient and kind. So what was this phenomenon? Was a member of the Gold-Eye Tribe like this really supposed to be dull-witted?
Come to think of it, those legends were full of holes. Even among humans, a hundred people meant a hundred different personalities. How could an entire race of Golden-Eyes possibly share the same disposition?
Kleis realized one fact in an instant.
The reason Aether had been obedient was not because she was a member of the Gold-Eye Tribe, but simply because she had been a slave. The tribe merely possessed sharp minds and quick wits, which allowed them to grasp their situation faster than slaves of other races.
"Go ahead. Try to turn me into a fireball right here, or call a servant or the master of the house to beat me to a pulp. But if you do..."
Put another way, a member of the Gold-Eye Tribe from the wild, roaming freely here without having fallen into slavery, was......
"...you'll pay the price."
Far more dangerous.
Kleis pulled her fire-wreathed staff from subspace. Yet the girl didn't so much as blink and kept her eyes on Kleis. She went further, sticking her hands in her pockets and bobbing her head in a manner designed to annoy the nobility.
"Good grief, you're actually going to do it. Enough. There's no need to be on guard. I only came out to say hello today."
"Hello...?"
"That's right. Hello."
The girl ambled casually in front of Kleis. She moved her legs slowly and twirled her fingers in circles. Her gait was nearly identical to the one Aether had displayed at the Flare conference.
"You're going to be staying here for a while, aren't you? Then I can't very well not say hello. My hometown isn't far from here."
"What is that..."
"Ah, while I'm at it, there's one word of caution I'll give you as well."
The moment the sentence ended with a period, the footsteps that had been restlessly treading the front yard also came to an abrupt halt.
Blazing red eyes and faint uranium-hued eyes met.
The white-haired, golden-eyed girl added just a single sentence.
"Whatever happens, do not cross the 3rd Defense Line."