Episode 004
Beneath a beautiful chandelier,
“What do we do? Aren’t we in big trouble now?”
When Rein, a girl with a lithe build, spoke in a low voice,
“Yeah.”
Arshe slowly nodded.
“……”
Lurein said nothing,
but as if she agreed, she lowered her head deeply.
She looked so dispirited that even the color of her blond hair seemed to have faded slightly.
“……”
“……”
“…Mm.”
The three girls sat side by side on the sofa, seemingly lost in thought, each taking a sip of tea.
What should they do about this situation?
They racked their brains for a long while, but apparently nothing came to mind.
“Haa…”
“Phew.”
“……”
They only let out heavy sighs.
“What do we do? We should have sent Tanas to the execution block.”
“Exactly.”
“To think he said he would receive the Goddess’s Judgment… Phew.”
Then they merely stole glances at one another.
Was that why?
“No matter that Seria was the one who suggested it, the truth is… I was never really comfortable with it from the start…”
“What? Rein! Are you trying to act like you’re the only good one now?”
As things had gone wrong, she quietly brought out the feelings she had never revealed before.
“I-it’s true, though?”
“What does that matter? You agreed too! Seriously, you’re so annoying!”
Lurein set her teacup down with a sharp clack, sprang up from the sofa, and glared at Rein.
Her eyes burned fiercely,
as if saying, “Just try saying one more word.”
“I only nodded because I had no choice… I felt bad the whole time. I saw Tanas crying alone at night several times. Emotionless girls like you wouldn’t understand, but…”
“What’s that supposed to mean? You tormented him just fine too, didn’t you? Like a thief, you had a real talent for that sort of thing.”
Not to be outdone, Rein sprang to her feet as well and glared back at Lurein, sparks flying between them.
“W-what did you say? Then what about you? You even used magic on Tanas! Aren’t you just a completely insane mage?”
“The situation left me no choice, so what was I supposed to do?”
“You call that an excuse right now…!”
“Just because I’m deigning to speak with you, do I look like I’m on your level? You commoner…!”
At that moment,
“But.”
Unable to keep watching their quarrel, Arshe shook her blue hair and stepped between them.
“It certainly had an effect. …Both of you, cool your heads.”
Whether her firm tone had some effect,
“……”
“…Hmph!”
The two reluctantly sat back down on the sofa.
At their childish behavior, Arshe clicked her tongue and shook her head.
Though they were members of the same Hero’s Party, in the end, they were inexperienced novices.
They were different from her, who had been dispatched by the Order.
“You all saw how Tanas looked during the trial, didn’t you? It may be painful, but our actions have borne fruit. Haven’t they?”
When his face, confident and dignified as he persuaded the audience, appeared in their minds,
“Mm. Certainly…”
“True.”
They smiled faintly.
“Didn’t Lord Tyr, the God of Justice, say so as well? That a hero is one who grows stronger the more trials he overcomes.”
“Yes.”
“That’s right!”
Men were drawn to mature charm.
No matter how much girls like these tried, they weren’t even a threat.
“I won’t ask what thoughts you two have toward that man. But what we’re doing isn’t wrong, so don’t dwell on it too much. And…”
“And?”
“Seria said it too, didn’t she? That if it’s him, even if we reveal the truth later, he’ll surely just laugh it off.”
The words were no more than consolation, but the two girls’ expressions brightened visibly.
“R-right? That’s what will happen, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. He’ll overcome this much easily. Tanas is a hero, after all.”
Fortunately, perhaps,
the stiff atmosphere quickly changed into something gentle.
“Then what do we do now? Originally, we were going to let him experience a ‘brush with death,’ weren’t we?”
“That’s right. And after that, wasn’t Seria supposed to sneak Tanas away?”
Looking at Rein and Arshe, who were still sighing, Lurein thought for a moment.
“Haa… I guess it can’t be helped. I have to play the villain again this time too, don’t I?”
She swept her blond hair back and stood up confidently.
“Do you have a method?”
“It would be nice if Tanas gave a false confession. Even if that doesn’t happen, we just need to give him a great trial somehow, right?”
“Mm? That’s true, but…”
Then she took a small crystal orb out from inside her cloak.
“I’m going to contact the porter and that woman from before. I don’t know much about it, but I heard that once the Goddess’s Judgment begins, he’ll be locked away for a hundred days because of the purification ritual.”
“This judgment thing isn’t dangerous, is it?”
“Mm… I’m not sure either, but won’t they just sprinkle water or something? If it were dangerous, Seria would contact us.”
“But the porter…? Ah? Him? He seemed like bad news… What if Tanas gets badly hurt?”
After thinking for a moment, Rein seemed to finally recall the porters and frowned, shaking her head.
“Nothing will happen… probably? …Surely he wouldn’t kill him, right? We just need him to make Tanas feel like he’s at death’s door.”
“And that woman? Are you talking about your master?”
“That doesn’t sound very pleasant… It gives me chills to think that a woman like that was my master.”
“I apologize. So?”
“…Judging by her personality, she’ll torment him just the right amount, won’t she?”
Then, after they exchanged glances for a moment, Rein was the first to speak.
“I’m in favor.”
“…There’s no other obvious method, so let’s do that. I merely follow the will of God.”
“Good. Then it’s decided.”
When Lurein poured mana into the crystal, the orb trembled little by little and gave off a faint light.
“But who is the trash who murdered the princess?”
“It couldn’t really have been Tanas who killed her… Let’s ask Seria later.”
“Mm… Lord Tyr will never forgive a devil like that.”
Before long, the crystal orb shone brightly, and all three slowly rose from their seats.
“It’ll go well… right?”
“This is the last time anyway, isn’t it?”
“Yes, we only have to do this one time.”
They did not think much of it.
They simply took it for granted
that once Seria brought the hero back, the five of them would gather and set off on a journey again like before.
…That was what they thought.
“This should do it. We’ll have to stay apart for a while. I’m going to Lord Hero of the Spear’s side.”
“I’ll go to the Magic…”
“The Bow.”
Did they know?
That this was their final chance to turn back.
Back then,
they did not.
**********
Rattle—
Rattle—
The carriage raced endlessly down the road.
“Mm… So a hero really is a hero, is that it?”
“To think he hasn’t let out a single groan even after carrying something that heavy for an entire week. Impressive.”
“Frightening… I cannot understand why this man was called incompetent.”
“Do you remember the swordsmanship he showed the day before yesterday?”
“It was vicious… If not for the hero, we would all be dead.”
Whether the soldiers around me were admiring me or remaining wary did not matter.
This came first right now.
Wooooong—
Sitting cross-legged, I continued circulating the internal energy throughout my body.
Though it was nothing more than the Small Heavenly Circuit, I could not stop my training.
Martial arts were something one had to begin in childhood.
Starting martial arts at a late age and achieving greatness was close to impossible.
Of course, I was an exception.
‘Only half more to go.’
It would be nice if I had a spiritual medicine, but there was no way such a thing existed.
Even if it did, obtaining one in the current situation would be as difficult as plucking stars from the sky.
Should I say that rotten though he was, he was still a hero?
His frame was built to some extent, but all of the acupoints throughout his body were blocked, so for the past week I had poured my qi into opening them.
“Stop. We’ll rest here for a while.”
“Understood.”
When the knight at the front raised his hand to halt them, the carriage came to a rattling stop.
“Come out and get your dinner.”
Perhaps because of what had happened the day before yesterday, I could feel that the soldiers’ attitudes had softened considerably.
“…I don’t need it.”
“Hmph, is that so? Do as you like.”
Easy to say.
Not only were my hands and feet still shackled, but an enormous mass of steel had been hung around my neck, waist, and back.
Seriously, whose head did this idea come from?
The thought that they could just press me down with weight was absurd.
They thought they could stop a hero with this?
‘What are they going to do if I throw this off and leave?’
All I could think was that they were truly ignorant.
Come to think of it, the royal court’s higher-ups had all been incompetent too, hadn’t they?
That was why they would be destroyed in an instant if the Demon King’s army invaded.
“……”
Even in this situation, the fortunate thing was that it did not interfere with my qi circulation and breathing.
The turbid qi throughout my body flowed along my acupoints and gathered in my dantian.
It was an internal force imbued with ghostly energy, quite different from the pure internal energy I had used in my previous murim.
Each time I circulated the Small Heavenly Circuit, my internal energy surged and swirled in a dark crimson hue.
‘Anyone could see I’m the villain.’
I had intended to cultivate the Heaven-Shattering Flowing Divine Art first…
But I had no choice.
Because of that bastard…
“B-brother, I brought your dinner. Eek!”
The one-armed man holding a wooden bowl turned pale with fright and lowered his eyes.
“Just looking at you makes me furious. Why did you crawl in here again?”
“I-I’m sorry. A worm like me… P-please just spare my life.”
Terrified that his other arm might be cut off as well, he pressed himself flat and apologized to me over and over.
A porter.
Originally, they were nothing more than laborers who tagged along with adventurer parties to handle miscellaneous chores, but when it came to a Hero’s Party, someone fairly skilled would attach themselves.
Was that why?
The porter who had received the assassination request had done something bold the day before yesterday, attacking the carriage together with bandits.
Therefore,
I had no choice but to cultivate a demonic art that could exert great power immediately.
If I had not, all the knights and soldiers outside would have turned into cold corpses.
…And naturally, the clients were those women.
“……”
How did I know this?
“I’m sorry, brother…”
Because this bastard, apparently desperate to live, spilled the whole truth.
His lone remaining left arm.
So, in exchange for cutting off one of his arms, I spared his life.
Of course, that was not the end of it.
“Remember. With just this one thing, you…”
I deliberately swallowed the rest of my words and circulated my internal energy, grasping at the air.
“Guh, kh…”
The porter’s face turned deathly pale in an instant.
“…If you want to test whether my words are true, I won’t stop you.”
I always respected a spirit of challenge, after all.
“I-I will keep it in mind.”
But to think they would try to kill the hero, humanity’s hope. Were they in their right minds?
Who was supposed to stop the Demon King—
“B-but if you are this skilled, why have you still not escaped?”
“……”
When I wordlessly raised my hand,
“I’m sorry!”
The porter jumped in fright and slammed his head down.
You punk.
There is a reason for everything.
“There’s someone I have to meet.”
“Pardon?”
At present, I had been saddled with the absurd false charge that I “murdered the princess of the Empire.”
If they had no justification, they would not be able to send someone like the porter after me.
I will catch the real culprit.
##