The Gold-Eye Tribe and the Fox Beastmen Tribe (5)
The Gold-Eye Tribe and the Fox Beastmen Tribe (5)
"In that case, let's raid Saliere Territory."
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
I had no time for complex thinking. While I was doubting my own ears and hesitating, the two fox beastmen exchanged a round of dialogue.
"You want to sack a human settlement? Are you insane?"
"What choice do we have? We're short on food."
I'd heard long ago that the fox beastmen were a tribe that knew how to raid.
And it wasn't only the Fox Beastmen Tribe. For nomadic beastman peoples, raiding had been one of their means of survival.
To secure food in barren lands, they had to hunt, gather, or raise livestock. But those methods alone couldn't feed a large number of tribe members.
Consequently, in the old era, the beastmen of the western Empire had used hit-and-run tactics to strip food and goods from humans. That was the backdrop behind why humans looked down on beastmen as barbarians.
In any case, the flow of events couldn't be allowed to go in this direction.
I was about to open my mouth, thinking out the words I would say.
"But the times have changed."
"Frey?"
Frey, who clearly should have been asleep beside her mother, pushed open the tent flap and walked in. Her cheeks, which had been bright red, had already returned to their normal color.
"Right now, relations between fox beastmen and humans are at the best point in history. Stabbing them in the back when we've built enough trust to trade at the river mouth isn't something you should do lightly in modern diplomacy."
No one tried to refute Frey as she appeared out of nowhere and laid out the sound argument. Leaving aside how clean her logic was, this little brat didn't have the kind of personality to speak this calmly.
I wasn't the only one thrown off by the change in Frey's demeanor. One of the fox beastmen asked with a quivering mouth.
"Wh-What's with this little brat? Shows up out of nowhere and then..."
"How many times have I told you not to call me a little braaaaaaat!!"
Ah, there went her berserk button.
Come to think of it, from Frey's perspective, there were a lot of elders here. The kid hadn't turned strange because she'd drunk something wrong—she was just minding her manners and adjusting her speech accordingly.
Clearing her throat with a harrumph, Frey composed herself and returned to the original topic.
"Furthermore, Margrave Saliere is a man of good character. Rather than resorting to the pre-modern method of raiding, asking him properly and borrowing food would be the best conclusion for everyone."
Every single word was correct. As far as I was concerned, Frey had effectively said everything I'd needed to say.
"And? Were you waiting outside just so you could come in and say all that?"
"I only happened to overhear."
"In any event, you're telling us to go into debt to Count Saliere."
There really was no other way.
Even if they tried to hunt, the flooding had swept all the animals away. Even if they tried to gather fruit, the trees had been yanked out by the roots and blown off.
The livestock they'd been raising had all been abandoned without time to slaughter, and the tribe had fled here as refugees. No other silver-bullet solution existed. One way or another, they'd have to borrow a human hand to get through this typhoon.
"How foolish."
However, a few of the fox beastmen didn't seem to want that kind of help.
"Just because Saliere has treated us well up to now doesn't mean he'll do so again this time."
"And there's no law that says he won't do so this time either."
"Frey, when you—who may one day lead this Pastrend—say things like that, the future of the tribe looks dark. Have you already forgotten the words our ancestors left behind?"
I'd studied continental history while preparing for the academy entrance exam. The textbook I'd read then said that beastmen and humans had infamously bad relations.
So much so that a certain maxim circulated among the beastman peoples.
"That humans will inevitably betray you, so never trust them?"
"Exactly!"
"But right now, the ones about to betray are us."
There was no logical flaw in Frey's statement. Yet a clear difference existed between that logic being true and people acknowledging and accepting that logic.
Raiding and rape, enslavement and genocide.
The emotional rift that had opened between humans and beastmen was deep and dark. But to the younger generation like Frey, it was merely an old tale written in history books.
Conversely, for the older generation of fox beastmen who had lived through those tragedies firsthand, they lived and breathed as gruesome nightmares inside their heads.
"Anyway, bowing our heads and going begging is out of the question. We find another way, or we take it outright!"
"He's right, Frey. Think of the Goat Tribe. A long time ago they fell into a small debt to humans and ended up enslaved as a group."
I could tell at a glance this was a sensitive issue. If it had been the original me, I would've tried not to get involved in something like this.
But right now, every moment counted. If Rote's territory were attacked, both Frey and I would be in an awkward position.
"Ahem, hm."
I cleared my throat to draw attention. The tent, which had begun to grow noisy with debate over the agenda, fell quiet as if by miracle.
Before long, close to twenty pairs of iridescent eyes turned toward me.
"Everyone, are you aware that Count Saliere's second daughter is a friend of Frey's?"
At my remark, the fox beastmen wore blank expressions.
They'd be hearing this for the first time, after all. We'd never told them, and until now there'd been no reason for them to know.
"Sh-She was?"
"Yes. She, Frey, and I are all classmates."
With that statement, the fox beastmen grasped one connecting link.
Namely, the link that was me.
"Would it be acceptable if I acted as a go-between for you to borrow food from Count Saliere?"
A few of the younger fox beastmen let out little exclamations of admiration. That was their way of showing they understood.
The elders who had rebuked Frey soon reached the same conclusion, and their expressions softened.
"If I move on your behalf, the Fox Beastmen Tribe shouldn't suffer any direct harm."
"If a member of the Gold-Eye Tribe mediates for us... still, will it really be all right?"
"The Great Spirit asked this of me. I have to help."
If only to get my hands on that highly enriched uranium.
"For that to happen, you'd have to enter the Empire first."
"I'm aware. I'll move as soon as the wind weakens."
I'd built an earth wall to ensure Frey's mother wouldn't suffer an accident, and I'd removed the danger that her friend's territory might get raided. With that, I'd eliminated most of the variables that could leave Frey devastated.
All that remained was returning to where Rote was.
I hoped nothing had gone wrong there.
**
The typhoon's effects reached as far as Saliere Territory.
Despite being plastered with disaster-prevention scrolls, the wind blew fiercely enough to send loose objects flying.
"Haaah."
Rote sipped the chamomile tea her brother had made for her and gazed out the window. The fresh, clear fragrance made her heavy body feel as though it were unwinding.
"The typhoon still hasn't ended."
Every so often, a biting gust would slam mercilessly against the glass pane. The windows were enchanted with wind-and-wave protection magic, so ordinary wind wouldn't break them, but there was always the one-in-a-million chance.
"...Ah."
Staring out the window, she'd spaced out without realizing it.
She was worried about Aether, who had abruptly crossed over into beastman territory. What was she doing right now? What exactly had that mood been, the one Rote had sensed right before they'd parted ways?
It didn't really matter. What was important to Rote right now was thorough preparation and review, plus the research into the new magic her father had asked of her.
Even so, the seat by the window kept nagging at her. Rote stared at the same window over and over before finally pulling her gaze away.
And the moment she looked away—outside the window, a pair of golden eyes.
"Damn, she's got some sharp senses...."
The white-haired girl, clinging to the window frame, meticulously swept her gaze over the interior of the study where Rote sat.
Her build, her voice, her manner of speaking, even her face.
Aside from having hair of the exact opposite color, she was a girl who looked exactly like Aether.
Gale-force winds blew in constantly, lashing the nearby tree branches without mercy, but the robe the girl wore only fluttered lightly. That was proof she was using a storm-prevention scroll.
Thanks to that, despite her slender frame, she was able to keep from being blown away. Evading Rote's gaze while scouring the interior of the room down to its corners, the girl let out a small hum.
"Hm, I don't see my sister."
Strange. She'd definitely heard the woman was often together with that redhead.
"Did Rosemary get it wrong?"
That couldn't be. Rosemary might've lacked manners, but her competence was absolutely certain.
"This is bad."
The girl bit her lower lip and drew even closer to the window. She meant to check every blind spot, down to the very corners.
The white-haired girl didn't possess a scoping spell like Rosemary's that could search a wide area. So, like anyone else, she had to confirm things with her own eyes.
That was when it happened.
—Whoooosh!
From somewhere, an uprooted tree hurtled toward the back of the girl's head. Focused entirely on Rote's eyes, the girl realized what was happening too late.
Crack! The tree collided head-on with the back of the slender girl's head.
The occipital lobe at the back of the head governed vision. Even with intact eyes, a blow to the back of the head could cause blindness.
Of course, the girl wasn't the kind of being for whom that applied. But the region that governed sight was still located at the back of her head, the same as a human's.
For the briefest instant, the girl's vision went black. With her sight blacked out, she tumbled over and over.
It was so sudden that she couldn't even scream. Between her ringing ears, another sound echoed.
—Crash!
She'd apparently plowed headfirst into the window.
"Ugh."
She let out an uncharacteristic groan and clutched the back of her neck.
The 2nd Seat of the Great Machines of the Nine Heavens, failing to dodge a single log and ending up like this. If her subordinates saw her, they'd howl with laughter.
But she had no time to dwell on that.
"Y-y-you...."
Another girl's voice, sounding terrified.
Short red hair whipped in the storm blowing through the window. Staring at the girl with bewildered eyes, Rote slowly backed away.
"Rote! What's going on!"
As if on cue, having heard the sound of shattering glass, her father and brother came rushing into the study. Thanks to them, a rather unsightly scene was now on full display.
A white-haired Aether, half-sprawled in front of the broken window.
And Rote Saliere, trembling like a leaf at the sight of her.
Count Saliere and Lorwell sensed that something had gone very wrong. The white-haired girl was in the same predicament, for that matter.
The father and son of House Saliere had numerous questions to ask the girl before their eyes. So many that they hardly knew which to ask first.
Maybe that was why. The first question out of Lorwell's mouth was somewhat preposterous.
"Uh, Aether? Why is your hair color like that...?"
Right, laugh it off.
At times like this, the best move was to grin like an idiot.
The girl brushed the glass fragments from her clothes and gave a bitter smile.
And then, in her bewilderment.
Completely bewildered, she let slip a remark utterly unbefitting her dignity as an Extinction-class being.
"I dyed it... and came here."
Shit.
Fucked.