EP.223 Prisoner, Prisoner, Prisoner
I mostly kept the mind-reading talk hidden and appropriately embellished the rest. I changed it to sound like I had heard such stories, or later heard them separately.
The story that flowed like water only ended after mentioning the flowing waters of the Hameln River.
The regressor, who had been listening to my story from a more objective position than anyone else, summarized it.
"So the Military Nation tried to experiment with using taboos, and you were the test subject but resisted, and you and the students pooled your strength to take down the officer, but to avoid the pursuit that followed, you caused the Hameln incident."
The regressor, who had been nodding with an "hmm," clenched his fist and suddenly shouted.
"What you said before, it was all a lie! You said the kids rebelled and made you a sacrifice to lay a curse!"
"It's similar, isn't it? If you pick it apart piece by piece, it was all true."
"Wrong! You made it sound like you were the complete victim! Listening to it now, you instigated the whole thing!"
"Well, when someone says 'then you're the culprit,' who would nod right away? Just telling the truth, I think I've fulfilled my duty."
I replied confidently. Surprisingly, the regressor showed signs of accepting my excuse for now.
"But... apart from that... well, it was an appropriate response."
"Oh? You understand this? What's gotten into you?"
"What do you mean what's gotten into me. I was in an objective position from the start."
The regressor, who had shot back lightly, crossed his arms and coldly evaluated my actions.
"It was the best judgment. The Military Nation, vulnerable to the mystical, would impose information control first when such a bizarre and sudden incident occurs. Conversely, the time when they cause a major incident and the other side becomes cautious about investigating the truth is when the biggest opening appears. A good method."
It was a remark befitting someone who had destroyed the Military Nation once. Perhaps because of the kinship of hating the same existence. The regressor sent a friendly gaze toward me, who had contributed to ruining the Military Nation.
"...Still, it was a better story than I expected. At first I thought you were an agent of the Special Duties Division, specially raised by the Military Nation like a signal soldier or public security. Turns out you were quite a decent guy."
"Hahaha. Hearing that from a great criminal who even cut off Jiseon's arm feels awkward."
"Always having to be sarcastic until the end."
Hahaha. A pleasant exchange of smiles. This is what real conversation is.
Until now, we've only had overly sharp, purposeful conversations. Teaching someone, informing, getting angry, fighting.
There's no need to always use language purely for information exchange. Fostering friendship like this is one of the true functions of speech.
'In a previous iteration. When I cooperated with the Resistance, thanks to the Hameln incident, I was able to gather quite a few internal supporters. Well, that alone wasn't enough. It was mainly possible because I waged guerrilla warfare and drove the Lord of All Things berserk, but internal public sentiment can't be ignored either... Wait. We were comrades, weren't we?'
Had the regressor ever sent such a warm gaze to me before? Harmonious. That word fit perfectly as we smiled amiably.
"I think I've greatly misunderstood you until now."
"As long as you know now. Humans are creatures that learn, aren't they?"
"Words. Anyway, I owe you one."
'Only limited to the previous iteration, though. Since I decided not to cooperate with the Resistance in this iteration, it won't be of much use... No, wait. Hameln, truth. Suicide... Influence.'
What is it? My thoughts are spinning round and round, but the content keeps jumping around so I can't quite grasp it.
It was then. Historia, who had been listening with her arms tightly bound, bit down harder on her cigarette. A crushed sound came out.
"...Our darling. You were a crueler person than I thought. They may have been incompetent, but they were my and Hui's classmates, yet you say it was fine seeing them all die off."
"Huh?"
When I turned my head, Historia was glaring at the regressor fiercely as if she would lunge at him any moment. The regressor, faced with sudden hostility, looked bewildered.
"Why? Didn't you extract the Hameln students while they were pretending to be mystical and fumbling around with information control imposed?"
The regressor asked back innocently.
Historia, realizing what misunderstanding the regressor was under, scoffed and leaned her back against the container wall again. Blowing out cigarette smoke, Historia smiled as if looking at an innocent child.
"...Ah. So that's what you thought? I'll take back what I said earlier. Your way of thinking is still cute."
"Why are you picking a fight again? You just need to deceive them appropriately and extract them, don't you?"
"How do you deceive that many people from the Military Academy students, and the eyes of the instructors on the rescue ships that followed? Really, so naive and young. How did someone like you end up traveling with Hui?"
"Huh? Wait a minute. If what you say is true—"
'Definitely, if they were ordinary people who couldn't even properly handle standardized magic... it would be hard to escape unnoticed in the flowing water. Then, did they really themselves...'
In an instant, goosebumps rose as if I'd been drenched in water. Not my emotion, but the regressor's.
The regressor, who shuddered for a moment, flinched and looked at me.
'...Did you really kill them all? Your own classmates...?'
"Ah, um. This is a bit hard to explain, but since it sounds like I killed them, to defend myself: the dead kids reached an agreement among themselves."
"An agreement? What agreement? An agreement to all die together?"
Surely not, such a meaningless agreement.
"Similar but different. An agreement that not everyone could survive."
"What?"
"Those who will die will die, and those who will live will live. At least, so that those who survive could... even if they died, they would die quietly in resignation."
If no bodies were found, they would be suspected of having survived. Then it would just remain as some kind of escape drama. The effort of rowing while singing until their throats tore would be in vain.
"I told everyone the method. Set wind magic on your bio-terminal, and walk out under the river. As long as you don't lose concentration, you can breathe for about 3 minutes underwater with standardized magic. Whether you get swept away by the current and die, or die from lack of breath, or die becoming fish food. Accepting all of that, let's walk out along the riverbed... Since not everyone could survive, so that those who wish to live could live."
"Wait. That's impossible. Using wind magic underwater requires more than ordinary concentration. Even if you could do it, when you run out of breath, you'd thrash around instinctively."
"They endured that. Among the children who participated in Hameln's graduation exercise, not a single person struggled asking to be saved. Either dying silently as they walked, or barely surviving and reaching the riverbank. They made it certain enough to be etched into people's minds."
That is why Hameln is the Military Nation's disgrace, and for those who happened to witness that scene, it became an experience like a nightmare.
A curse is nothing special. When a person with strong hatred and outrage, after sufficient contemplation and agonizing, expresses it in a shocking and ingenious way and carves it into people's hearts... that itself becomes a curse.
There's no need to look far for someone afflicted by that curse.
"There's a witness who saw it directly right here."
Historia is precisely that witness. As one of the closest people, as one of those who witnessed what final outcome we met.
That's why she ended up like that.
"Look at Ria. Commander of the Six Generals. The Military Nation's daughter, and the strongest martial talent born under the Star of the Hegemon. The genius who looks down on everyone... deliberately letting herself be tied up just to hear a story from a classmate, what a bizarre sight."
"Ugh... that's true, but—"
'Is that also why the Commander became an important figure in the Divine Kingdom...? Just how far does this guy's reach go?'
Don't treat me like some shadowy manipulator. I am an individual among individuals. I've never built an organization, never operated in the shadows. I just always did my best to survive.
Leaving the regressor behind, I approached Historia.
A scar etched in the heart is itself a curse. It lingers and torments, and the deep darkness emanating from that wound spreads to the surroundings.
Well, to a fool who received an impression rather than a scar, it could become something like a blessing. But at least not for Historia.
"How about it, Ria. Have you learned everything you wanted to know?"
"...What happened, I roughly understand."
"Still seems like you have some unresolved frustrations. Something to say?"
Though her curiosity was resolved, her expression still had a knot of resentment. Historia raised her head from beyond the magic tobacco smoke and interrogated me with coldly sunk eyes.
"Why. You. Could think of a way to kill all the children... but couldn't think of a way to save them? If it were you, a different method, surely..."
But Historia also knows it's a meaningless lamentation. At that time, I acted and Historia watched. She, a bystander, has no right to condemn me for not coming up with a more ingenious method.
Historia turned her head sharply mid-sentence. Only the sound of a sigh mixed with smoke could be heard. I wrapped up the conversation with a faint smile.
"Now, now. Anyway, it was a somewhat dark story. I'm not sure if everyone found it boring."
[Boring? It was a fascinating tale. So this is the reason the Military Nation chases you as if to kill you...]
For Tirkanjaka, who loved any kind of story, there was only interest. Well, a hundred or so suicides wouldn't deliver much shock to Tirkanjaka.
[However... there, Hui. Gluttony is not quite a power that can be called a taboo. Hunting prey and reducing their numbers is the principle of all things in the world. Although the means used by the Military Nation induces repulsion, I do not shun the power of gluttony itself...]
The vampire who devours humans desperately justified her own actions. It was like a predator wanting to prove her own harmlessness.
Well, it's not like Tir is an indiscriminate mass murderer. I fully understood her position, so I replied casually.
"I never particularly shunned it. I just didn't see the need. Just as Tir doesn't go around stabbing random passersby to draw blood and eat, I don't commit unnecessary acts."
[I appreciate that.]
"What for? As long as you don't eat me, it's fine."
There's nothing as reassuring as the existence of a predator who will absolutely never eat me. As long as she doesn't attack me, we can transcend our species origins and become very close friends, yes indeed.
"Woof."
"...? Why are you suddenly barking?"
"Woof. Timing!"
"What do you mean timing?"
Anyway, having said all I needed to say, I clapped my hands and ended the conversation.
"Alright, the sun has set. Let's get moving slowly. We can only move safely at night. Before that..."
Historia didn't seem to want to even meet my eyes. She had turned her gaze away and was only showing her side profile as she contentedly blew out cigarette smoke. It didn't seem like she would fully cooperate.
Leaving her as is would be worrisome, but dragging around the Military Nation's daughter while attracting all kinds of aggro from the Military Nation was also a bit much.
I don't have many options anyway. Even tied up like that, Historia could subdue me, so I ultimately needed the help of my companions. Let me ask for their opinion.
"Uh, um. Shei, what should we do with Historia?"
"Hmm. Wait a moment. Let me think."
'She's a Six General of the Military Nation, and even in this situation, she hasn't reached her prime yet. Left alone, she'll be a persistent hindrance. Especially, apart from the Principle of Infallibility where one out of three shots always hits... once she awakens the Bayonet Total Will, she becomes a counter to Heavenly Intervention, making her really, really difficult to deal with. Hmm.'
Huh? What? She gets even stronger? Bayonet Total Will, what's with that technique name that sounds incredibly powerful just hearing it?
Hah, really. I feel a sense of relative deprivation. While I was lamenting about being able to read thoughts arbitrarily, the regressor also expressed disapproval and sought an opinion.
"...I don't particularly want to kill her. Let's decide on keeping her alive for now."
Huh? What are you saying, suddenly.
"Um, Shei. Are you a demon mad for slaughter? How does 'I don't want to kill her' come out as if you're being generous?"
"Huh? Why? I just said I don't want to kill her?"
You still don't know what you said? While I stood with my mouth agape, Tirkanjaka also found it absurd and solemnly lectured.
[Shei. However much resentment you hold against the Military Nation, are you not Hui's companion? Why then do you speak of killing a comrade's associate? Even a thirsty vampire does not touch the kin of acquaintances.]
"Uh...? Wait a minute. Am I the bad guy here?"
"See? I told you it's not something for even a vampire to criticize. What's the point of not being gluttonous if you dice up a person's right arm, and why does talk of killing come up when she's a prisoner who surrendered fairly willingly, putting aside that she's your friend."
The regressor, unanimously criticized, stiffened and denied it.
"I didn't think of killing her either! I was just stating my opinion!"
"You're ruining the mood. No one was thinking of killing, but you alone say 'then let's not kill her,' and if anyone heard, they'd think we're people who just go around killing."
[In this harsh world, if even a comrade's associate is slaughtered, who would stand on my side? Do not mention it even by mistake.]
"I... I didn't think of that either..."
Due to the joint attack from Tir and me, the regressor ended up shrinking. Yes indeed, this is it. Having pleasantly beaten down the regressor, I turned my gaze when I suddenly felt a sense of incongruity.
Uh, Tir. Somehow it sounds like you're not killing her because she's a prisoner, but because she's my acquaintance...?
"Hey, Tir. If the one captured wasn't Ria but the spear-using old man, what would you do? Kill him?"
[...? If they're not your acquaintance, is there a need to go out of one's way to keep them alive? It's not as if you require the living for blood-sustenance.]
'I do not wish to create resentment by wantonly slaughtering your associates.'
Her very way of thinking was connections and blood relations first... I guess her way of thinking itself is from the old era.
Anyway, we returned to the discussion about Historia's disposition. In the end, it was either let her go or take her with us. If we let her go, how would we let her go, and if we took her, what measures would we take.
In a situation where no clever solution came to mind, I snapped my fingers as a bright idea occurred to me.
"Then how about we do this?"