The Leisurely Execution (3)
The Chimera Pretty Boy was the one you killed. As for the polar troll Handsome… I sold it a few days ago because the maintenance costs were getting ridiculous. Lucky for us. It was the only monster in the arena bigger than Pretty Boy.
“…Handsome? You named it that because it was Pretty Boy’s friend? What a trash naming sense…”
“Focus, you idiot. You’re the one who has to fight. You need to survive, if not for yourself, then for Aspen.”
The veiled woman was holding Nathan’s senior female knight hostage. Bin, the Sword Star Sect member who had shed a few tears over the story, threw himself enthusiastically into devising a strategy for Nathan. Nathan couldn’t tell whose side the guy was really on.
“…Didn’t you say you were hired by that black-veiled lady?”
“Helping you is the same as helping my employer over there. And she never told me not to sympathize with your situation.”
Bin showed Nathan his tablet and scrolled through the list of fighters affiliated with the arena. The brightly colored screen flipped rapidly, making Nathan dizzy. He had no idea whether he should feel grateful or annoyed with this parasitic pretty boy.
A strong wind blew again along the outer wall of the Floating Arena’s fuselage. The makeshift strategy room, built from metal frames and wire mesh, shook violently once more. It was hardly an ideal environment for focusing on a small screen. Nathan’s motion sickness only grew worse.
“Are you actually trying to help?”
“Honestly, I feel like puking from all this shaking too. But just look for a second. You should at least know who your opponent is.”
The veiled woman let out a sigh.
“Forget it. The opponent is a pair of twins anyway. There’s nothing better than those two when it comes to hunting surface-dwellers.”
Bin quietly put the tablet away. He looked like he’d been smacked in the face with a hammer.
“You’re right. It must be the twins.”
“Take it out again. You have to show me who they are.”
Bin quietly pulled the tablet back out and scrolled down. The first impression of the twins in the photo wasn’t particularly monstrous. A woman gripping a blade with a face covered in sweat, and behind her, a man whose mouth was wrapped in iron plating. Explanations were plastered all over the bottom of the image.
These destructive twins probably had no idea what kind of beings they would become on the day they first stepped into the arena. They were nothing more than a pair of poor siblings who needed quick cash, two young people who simply hoped not to go hungry for another day…
“They look like ordinary people.”
“That image is from over a hundred years ago. This is what they look like now.”
The scroll went further down. The next moment, Nathan felt his vision blur. Even on the battlefields of the surface, such hideous appearances were rare.
“Even the most vicious abyss cultists would probably bow and call them big sister and big brother if they saw those monstrous faces. These things are gladiators? Are you sure these aren’t their vengeful spirits after they died?”
“Strictly speaking, they aren’t standard gladiators. They don’t use regulation weapons—they fight with hooks and chain scythes.”
Bin flipped to another image. The woman, whose mouth was torn horrifically at one corner, was smiling brightly while hugging the severed head of some unlucky orc. The younger brother’s iron plating seemed to have grown like wood, completely covering his head in steel armor. Crimson eyes gleamed from between the spikes of his helmet. Both of them had braided their hair like northern berserkers, letting it hang like a lion’s mane. The fact that they were also drenched in blood was particularly striking.
“…Opponents of similar size are actually easier. The real problem is my physical condition. Do you have any more of that medicine you used to treat me last time?”
The veiled woman answered in place of the confused-looking Bin.
“Sorry, but I can’t give you any more rapid regeneration serum this time. It’s a drug that reattaches blood vessels and muscles in mere dozens of seconds. Without a doctor to control the dosage, the side effects could stop your heart.”
Bin’s eyes sparkled with interest.
“Whoa, there’s a regenerative agent that good? I’ve never heard of it. Since my body is basically my asset, that sounds pretty tempting.”
“There are still worlds in the Heavens you don’t know about, rookie. Just accept it. It’s medicine your salary could never afford.”
Bin shut his mouth with a gloomy expression.
“If your condition were a bit better, I’d consider administering it… but cutting off a wrist? I didn’t expect that fat bastard to be so bold. Even if he did something in a blind spot, if you died from shock, the Conclave councilor would look at him with suspicion. Though the same goes for me. I hastily attached a steel hand, but to the eyes of the people outside, it has to look like your original hand. If it gets discovered, I might be in trouble too.”
Only after hearing that did Nathan finally notice the peculiarity. The exterior of the steel prosthetic was almost identical to the design of the confiscated knight order gauntlet. He remembered how the arena master had stripped the gauntlet off before threatening to cut off his hand. Nathan frowned.
“You didn’t know my wrist would get cut off? Then how did you prepare this so quickly?”
“Thanks to a skilled technician. He’s still inside this arena. I didn’t pay him extra for a house call, but I did tell him to bet heavily on you.”
“Who said you could bet on me?”
“He said he wants to see your face later. Once the ship docks, go find him. He might even run over and kiss you.”
The woman’s words began as an explanation and ended in mockery.
“She’s pretty.”
Bin whispered with a serious face. It wasn’t mockery—it was sincere. Nathan thought about grabbing the bastard by the ear and throwing him out of the iron cage.
“Assembly’s done! And tame that damn temper of yours. You need a cool head to fight well and survive out there.”
Vandberg, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly smacked the fully assembled steel arm with a clang. Nathan tried moving his fingers. They moved smoothly with almost no awkwardness.
“Tame my temper?”
When he thought about what he had to do from now on, the advice felt more and more appropriate the more he chewed on it. The craftsman raised his bushy beard in surprise as Nathan bowed deeply. When Nathan lifted his head, he turned toward the woman.
“If the person who gifted me this arm wants a meeting as payment, I will gladly go find that technician as requested. And while I’m at it, may I ask you for one favor as well?”
“I have no intention of granting it, but let’s hear what it is.”
The veiled woman sounded like she already had an idea, but Bin looked completely lost. So when Nathan suddenly knelt and bowed like a vassal swearing fealty before his lord, Bin was utterly shocked.
“Please save the children.”
Nathan had made a promise to himself. He would do everything he possibly could. And that resolve wasn’t limited to himself alone. The best idea he could come up with right now was to beg. To kneel before this villain—who held Aspen’s life in her hands and was forcing the next fight upon him—and plead for help.
Damn it. It sounds nice when you call it ‘the best I can do,’ but anyone can beg.
Bin’s confused expression twisted as he tried to make sense of it.
“What are you talking about?”
“The operators here threw children in front of ghouls. They all survived by luck, but they’re probably still in their hands. Honestly, I don’t think those villains who did such a thing would take good care of the children who came back alive. They might try to squeeze more profit out of them through human trafficking. Or they might feed them to monsters.”
“They might have already thrown them out of the ship to reduce weight and save fuel, or tossed them into an incinerator like they almost did to Aspen.”
The woman picked up the thread in a casual tone. It was a horrifying speculation, but it might very well have happened. Nathan unconsciously clenched his own knee. The steel fingers dug into his flesh.
“But why are you telling me this, Nathan?”
“Because I don’t have the power to do anything about it. But you might.”
Nathan banged his head against the wire mesh.
“If you tell me to bark, I’ll bark. If you tell me to roll, I’ll roll. If you tell me to die, I’ll die like a dog shot with an arrow. So please, just like you saved Aspen, save the children who were trapped in those iron boxes. And if possible, send them all back home. Oh, and there’s also a guy named Akweba. Akweba Kakchlo. He’s a Lizardian. He lost his legs fighting to protect the kids. If I don’t even mention him, he’ll be really upset… Please. I will offer any kind of service I can provide. Please save them.”
Someone sniffled loudly. The other three turned toward the dwarf. Vandberg had his back turned and his arms crossed. As if the stares tickled the back of his head, the craftsman added an excuse.
“It’s cold. The wind is chilly.”
Nathan and Bin decided to respect him. They deliberately looked away. The woman let out a small laugh as if she had seen something ridiculous.
“You look incredibly awkward, like you’ve never begged anyone in your life.”
Well, it really is my first time.
“I’m moved that it’s your first time.”
The words flowed so naturally, as if she had read his mind, that Nathan furrowed his brow.
“Well, a few ideas come to mind… but it will require some effort from you, Nathan.”
“How can I help?”
“I’ll be direct. I cannot send all the children back to their hometowns. The ship will soon dock in the Heavens, and any cargo without the Stigma of the Heavenly God will be disposed of. Of course, once they receive the brand, they can never return home. If they leave the Heavens, they will only be struck by lightning and burned alive. No one can escape from the sky.”
Nathan’s vision swam.
“However, I can guarantee the children’s safety. Every single one. I can provide them with all the care their parents should have given them, including food, clothing, and shelter. And your Aspen. That child alone I can send to wherever she herself wishes to go.”
Once his twisted heart settled back into place, Nathan let out a sigh of relief. It was the best condition he could have hoped for. The only unknown was how heavy the price would be.
“In exchange, become my exclusive fighter. Until you die. In the Heavens, conflicts between factions are often settled in the arena. It’s similar to the surface’s trial by combat. I have many enemies, so I frequently find myself in troublesome situations. So let me warn you in advance. If you accept, you will almost certainly die.”
It was exactly as he had expected.
“It will be nothing like the bloody fights you’ve seen over the past two days. More malicious schemes, more cruel and insurmountable matches await you. You might even come to miss the time when they sawed off your wrist. The rest of your life will be a long, painful, and slow execution.”
There was something strangely similar to a love confession in the black-veiled woman’s demand. For a declaration that would bind another person’s entire life, the explanation of the terms was shockingly sparse.
This is bad. My dream in the military was early retirement. Being a knight was fulfilling, but I never planned to throw my life away in fights.
But even if he used the rest of his life exactly as she wished, could he drag their Heavens down to the ground? Could he save Aspen, who had nearly been thrown into an incinerator, and dozens of others who might fall into the abyss?
Nathan gritted his teeth. Aspen would survive. His comrade would be safe. The children would keep their lives. The price placed on the other side of the scale was the rest of his life, and even that period probably wouldn’t be very long.
Having made his decision, Nathan swallowed dryly.
“Thank you.”
If he could, a thousand times over.
“You don’t have to worry about that senior knight of yours. If this person decides to protect someone, no one except the Heavenly God himself could touch them.”
“Bin.”
“This person is actually—”
“Bin.”
At the woman’s stern voice, Bin shut his mouth. But he couldn’t hold it in for long and opened it again.
“I respect her so much. Nathan, when I was seventeen I was still drooling and eating dirt…”
“Our employer told you to shut up. Bin. Close your trap.”
“Ugh, damn it. Why do you get mad even when I say something nice?”
Even while grumbling nonstop, Bin couldn’t hide how impressed he was. However, Vandberg seemed unable to process his emotions at the level of mere admiration. In the end, the dwarf, unable to hide the tears dripping down his face, pulled something out as if he had made a firm resolution and pressed it into Nathan’s hand.
“You must survive. But if things go badly and you’re in a pinch, use this.”
“What is this?”
The lump, about the size of a drinking cup, was quite heavy. The finish was meticulously done in an ominous way. It looked like something that should never be allowed to come out had been sealed inside…
“It contains a fragment of a fallen star.”
When Vandberg growled lowly, the tips of his beard trembled.
“Pull the switch, open the lid, then stomp on it as hard as you can. Krrk—Ehadid, it can send hundreds of those dirty long-eared bastards straight to hell—”
It’s a high explosive, you crazy bastard.
Nathan froze. The horrified Bin snatched it from the dwarf’s hand in an instant.
“Have you lost your mind, Vandberg?”
“Right. What if the guards or the Eleim from the Conclave catch you with this? Hand it over.”
The explosive was naturally sucked into the woman’s hand. She threw it out through the bars. The craftsman’s masterpiece vanished into thin air. Vandberg screamed.
“What are you doing! If it falls to the surface, who knows which city will get caught in the explosion! Just what the… so…”
The specific mention of a city made Nathan go pale. On the other hand, Vandberg himself looked equally terrified. The eyes behind the veil bore down on the dwarf.
“Dirty long-eared bastards, was it? Go on, keep talking. Your ideology is quite fascinating.”
The unfortunate engineer couldn’t say a word in front of his employer. Nathan pulled him out of his torment.
“It didn’t fall. It disappeared.”
Contrary to Vandberg’s threat, it didn’t seem like some unlucky cow or king on the surface would be sacrificed. A small gap had opened in one corner of the sky and swallowed the explosive. Nathan remembered how the woman had melted into the shadows and vanished during their first meeting.
“Correct, Nathan. I threw it into my personal storage. You have good eyes.”
“I’d be a corpse if I lost my senses.”
“Then I hope you don’t lose that good sense for a very long time. There’s one last thing I want to ask those good eyes of yours.”
Nathan flinched, thinking the spark had flown to him. The woman lifted the veil from her face. A small, pale face was revealed. She must have lived for hundreds of years, yet she didn’t look old at all. Was the saying that elves don’t age true? What would it feel like to live as an eternal twenty-year-old? A strange, expressionless face that made it seem like something deep inside her heart was empty.
“What do you see beneath the veil?”
“I see my employer.”
“Anything else?”
Since it was a question with no obvious answer, Nathan hesitated instead. He couldn’t tell what she wanted from him.
“Um…”
You look rather pale. I recommend taking a short walk every morning for exercise.
Nathan barely swallowed the words that might have sounded like sarcasm. These two days had made him keenly aware that he had lived under the protection of adults. After turning thirteen, the only society he had experienced was within the knight order.
“You are beautiful. Is there anything else you’d like me to say?”
While carefully reading the room, Nathan realized that both Vandberg and Bin were looking outside as if trying to appear uninterested. The dwarf, who suffered from acrophobia, was even staring at the floor.
“…So there was something I was supposed to see.”
“No, not at all. I was simply checking again.”
“Was I supposed to see something other than your face?”
“You’re jumping to too many conclusions, Nathan. Let’s talk about that next time. You must win. The lives you are now responsible for are no longer just Aspen’s.”
When Bin finished retrieving all the cables they had ridden in on, the curtain began to envelop the guests.
“Children, huh. The number of hostages has increased.”
The woman’s chilling smile scattered into the air and vanished.
“…Empty expression my ass. That face was filled to the brim with malice.”
Left alone, Nathan took a deep breath. Even the promise to save the children might be a lie. It could simply be a reasonable deception to give him motivation. But he had done everything he could. He had to think that the children’s lives were now in his hands, just as Aspen truly was in that woman’s grasp. She had said the number of hostages had increased. If they were actually rescued, and Nathan lost and died, their future could not be guaranteed.
Nathan looked down at the bottom of the cage. If he had been trapped here without purpose, he might have gone mad with fear. That was probably the exact intention of whoever had designed this cell. But what Nathan was looking at was not the terrifying height. From high above, the entire landscape came into view at once.
It just so happens to be passing right over it.
It was surely thousands of kilometers away from the Unclaimed Highlands where Nathan had been abducted. The land of hope. The human bulwark that the abyss could not touch. The capital of the Human Union—Baylard. And standing at its center was the grand fortress built along the mountain ranges: Castaya. The cradle that had protected humanity during the ancient great war known as the Great Harvest.
From its solid core, thousands upon thousands of roads and waterways stretched out like blood vessels in every direction. Toward the plains, the wilderness, the rivers that connected to the sea. An impregnable fortress and the paths that guaranteed refuge there. Settlements, cities, and farms that had bloomed by receiving the nutrients of hope along those lifelines. And countless other buildings and foundations built by humans because humans needed them. All kinds of life were pulsing, blooming both according to plan and in utter chaos.
The writers’ expression “the heart of civilization” was no empty phrase. Seeing it from above made its meaning instantly clear.
Baylard was also a special place to Nathan, but not for the same reasons as others. To patriots, Baylard might be the hope of humanity and the dignity of the empire, but to Nathan it was memory. Countless recollections lingered there. The investiture ceremony at twelve, unit assignment, his first spar. The first defeat where he hadn’t shed blood. His first triumphal return at fourteen. His first medal at fifteen. His first funeral procession at sixteen. In the coffin had been the previous knight commander, who had treated Nathan like a nephew. And at seventeen, the unforgettable two-week vacation he had spent with Aspen.
Nathan gritted his teeth. Just as he could not turn back time to then, he no longer had the freedom to return.
“But Aspen can go back. So can those brats.”
The steel grip crushed the iron bars as if to shatter them. The cage screamed and slowly bent. The arena guards who had come to retrieve Nathan at that exact moment thought he was trying to throw himself off and panicked. A scream-like voice rang out above Nathan’s head.
“What the hell are you trying to do, you crazy bastard!”
What was he trying to do? He was trying to win. He was sharpening the blade in his heart to a razor’s edge.
Let’s make one promise, Nathan. It’s not hard. Just remember one thing.
Sparks flew from Nathan’s eyes.
Never lose.
“Th-this… this…”
The arena master’s fat eyelids fluttered like a candle flame in the wind. His horrified secretary dropped the box he was holding. Metal lumps poured out and rolled across the floor. They were crude prosthetics—gauntlets taken from Nathan that had been filled with plaster. Since getting caught by the Conclave councilor would mean the end, he must have prepared them to hide the fact that the hand had been cut off.
“How… how is this…!”
Nathan looked back and forth between the shoddy junk and his own smoothly moving steel hand. The solid rotating joints and bearings vibrated through his bones, yet they made no noise at all, like a luxury carriage. He couldn’t suppress the smile that leaked out.
“So you were planning to prepare everything for me. I was too indifferent.”
Nathan bared his teeth in a grin. That vicious smile looked like it would haunt their dreams. The arena master, whose blood seemed to have flowed backward through his veins, collapsed backward.