Episode 58
Asgard was a newly born nation. Moreover, the actual ruler of the Node there was Loki.
Ignoring such a being was no different from laughing in a king's face and pointing fingers at him; diplomatically, it was the same as declaring 'war.'
Even for a minor power, it would have been sufficient grounds for war.
'To trample a core figure of Ronia. And to subjugate them with ease in the middle of their main base and forces, with barely a hundred men!'
Then it would serve as a warning to other nations as well.
That if they took them lightly, they would bleed.
Aum bent at the waist lightly with a smile. His action was so exaggerated and seemingly mocking, but Ash mistook it for a blunder made by Aum, who was at a loss due to panic.
"Thank you. It is an honor to hear you say such things. As it happens, our Berserker Warriors are tired as well, so I believe we need proper rest. It seems a banquet would be necessary to boost morale as well."
Aum was openly saying, 'Prepare a banquet!'
'I should at least receive some fine food.'
This was Aum, who wanted to take this opportunity to treat the Berserker Warriors to a proper meal from the continent.
Ash was inwardly delighted.
Requesting a banquet meant he soon wanted to engage in 'diplomacy.'
Surely, there must be something he wanted from him.
"Very well! Then let us do so!"
"Then we shall finish preparations to depart by tonight."
"Please do. I too wish to inform my subjects that I am alive, and about all of you!"
Ash smiled and nodded. At that sight, Aum called for the Berserker Warrior and Kudan with a satisfied expression.
The Berserker Warrior looked at Aum, then glanced at Ash.
When his eyes met the gaze from within the helmet, Ash flinched in surprise and cowered, but then, perhaps belated pride rising, he stiffened his neck firmly.
"Escort him respectfully."
At Aum's words, one Berserker Warrior nodded and took Ash away, disappearing.
Aum looked at the remaining Kudan and opened his mouth.
"We are going to the Roden estate now."
"Are we not returning to our homeland?"
"Weren't you all tired from being dragged along by my whim? Since we're here, we should enjoy ourselves before going back."
"Enjoy ourselves?"
Aum nodded.
"Tell the Berserker Warriors. There will be a banquet at the estate we are soon going to. Tell them that when I give the signal at the banquet, they may enjoy themselves to their heart's content."
"...So you intend to run wild."
Kudan laughed hollowly.
Unlike the people of the Node, he was one who unexpectedly disliked using force, so he more or less understood what Aum meant.
"Yes, we'll capture that prince at the banquet. The rest... there's no need to keep them alive. Kill them all. However, if that prince resists, it doesn't matter if you cut off his arms and legs. Well, as long as he doesn't die."
Aum smiled. It was the cruel smile of a beast preparing for a joyous hunt.
Kudan scratched his head as he looked at Aum.
***
The sun had set and night had fallen.
Darkness settled over the Harma estate, and only the wagon where the Berserker Warriors were was brightly lit by torches.
"We're going to Roden?"
Loki boarded the wagon Aum had brought, folding his arms.
The eyes within the crow mask glared fiercely at Aum.
Guessing how uncomfortable Loki's mood was from that, Aum flinched and laughed awkwardly.
"Did His Majesty not tell us to handle it as we saw fit?"
"I had hoped you would choose to torture that one, you see."
No, come to think of it, the term 'king' seemed to have stuck by now.
"That would have been good too, but... if he is a link to the underworld, it's better to keep him alive. Wouldn't that be better than driving him mad?"
At the words that he might go mad, Loki became curious and asked.
"What kind of torture were you planning?"
"I don't know how, but the Berserker Warriors do. They said they would feed him some kind of food...."
At Aum's words, the Berserker Warriors flinched.
Because their hearing was sharp, cold sweat ran down their backs as they listened to the two's conversation.
They were talking about Aum's food.
To them, it was an unfamiliar food that was red like blood, chewy, and elastic.
Above all, it emitted a spicy, nose-stinging smell; if anyone saw it, it was ominous to the extreme, to the point of looking like food from hell.
Though they had spoken in jest, they were half-serious.
"I couldn't figure out what it was either. When I said I wanted to see it too, they refused, saying they didn't want to. They refused so adamantly that I couldn't check."
"Is it food used for torture? It might be something like a truth serum."
At Loki and Aum's words, Kudan smacked his lips.
'If I told them that the dishes Aum Linia made themselves were the food of hell, they wouldn't believe it.'
Loki had said that the food Aum made was delicious and had unofficially appointed him as a court chef, after all.
There was no such thing as 'spicy' food on the continent.
Naturally, resistance to spiciness did not exist either.
It was something even the Berserker Warriors, accustomed to pain, shied away from; an ordinary person would lose their mind the moment they tasted it.
"Th-thank you! I will never forget this kindness!"
"Be careful...."
Kankun was seeing off the refugees.
They were those who had requested asylum in the frozen land.
They would go to the frozen land without a single escort, and they would proceed bearing any dangerous incidents that occurred along the way.
Kankun wished them luck as he watched the refugees.
Only the refugees going to the Roden estate remained.
"Is this all there is...? What about the carriage?"
At Ash's words, Aum spoke with a feigned bitter expression.
"I apologize. I was unable to prepare such things."
In truth, a carriage could be made in an instant. But he had deliberately not done so.
Because if he wanted to invite the nobles' ridicule, 'appearances' were the most important.
"...Is this the time to quibble over this and that?"
Sallet, who was at a distance, leaned her back against the wagon where Loki was.
Her small voice reached Ash clearly.
"...Sallet. Are you talking to me right now?"
"Who else would I be talking to?"
At Sallet's rebuke, Ash made a bewildered expression.
These days, he felt their distance had grown even further.
"You uttered such words even knowing who I am?"
At Ash's words, Sallet snorted.
"Funny. What is a mere human prince to...."
Sallet had once been a princess, an imperial princess.
What was so great about the prince of a small kingdom?
Moreover, to her eyes, Ash did not possess the qualifications to be royalty.
"Do you not know that your words just now could harm others as well?"
Sallet flinched in surprise at Aum's words.
Sallet was no fool. She knew to some extent about human organizational relationships, and she also knew that as royalty of a nation, one had to observe minimal etiquette.
If she had acted wrongly, it could cause harm to Loki.
Sallet looked at Loki with a worried gaze.
Sallet looked up at Loki sitting atop the wagon and stiffened.
He was glaring. Precisely at Ash.
He wasn't emanating killing intent, but his eyes were so fierce that killing at any moment would not seem strange.
Ash probably couldn't see that because of the crow mask.
"N-now, now... please calm down!"
Aum, guessing Loki's state, broke into a cold sweat.
He knew all too well that if Ash jabbered on a bit more, not even a body would be left, and he would be reduced to ashes, vanishing completely.
Aum seated Ash in a different wagon from Loki's and conveyed his meaning to Loki through hand signs.
'Please endure a little longer! It will be soon anyway! After that, you may do as you please!'
"...I will kill that one very painfully."
"Yes, yes, do so. Kudan, let us depart."
Aum spoke to Kudan, and Kudan nodded, giving orders to the Berserker Warriors.
They headed toward the Roden estate.
***
Another refugee group that had left the Harma estate.
They were being chased.
"Eek!"
"I told you this wouldn't work!"
"We should have just followed that prince!"
The refugees scattered in confusion.
They threw away the luggage they carried and ran at full speed, but the feet of the starving monsters visible in the distance were even faster.
"Uwaaack!"
Too rushed, a man running away tripped over his own feet and fell.
Blood flowed from the forehead of the man who had hit the hard ground, but he had no energy to spare for such minor wounds.
Right now, he had to run away with all his might.
"Dad!"
The father gritted his teeth at the child's cry.
As he tried to get up again, his leg was caught by something.
"......!"
The man flinched in shock and his body froze.
Behind him, he felt a ragged breath accompanied by a gurgling sound from a throat.
As if unwilling to admit it, the man trembled and slowly turned around. At that moment, he felt immense pain in his leg.
Along with a crunch, the man's scream echoed across the land.
It was a Wight.
A long hand had grabbed the man's ankle and twisted it.
As if not satisfied with that, the Wight pulled the man's leg with a rotten smile and dragged him.
"Uwaaack!"
"Dad!"
The man shouted as the child tried to approach.
"Go! Run! Hurry! Quickly...!"
"N-no...! I don't want to...!"
"Please... please, someone help!"
The man's cry echoed, but there was no one to listen. The other refugees were only looking ahead, running with all their might to survive.
"Please, someone...!"
In that instant, the man felt his body being pierced.
His thumping heart was caught by something. It was... torn out and devoured into the Wight's mouth.
"......."
The man's head collapsed and struck the ground. He had died instantly.
The child stepped back while looking at the Wight.
The child had to run. But... Dad was right in front of them.
The child tried to move their feet, but couldn't because of overwhelming fear.
Whether recognizing that the child could not run, the Wight that had devoured the man's heart slowly approached the child.
All humans were fine, but children in particular were no different from a delicacy to the Wight.
Their relatively tender flesh, untainted blood, and even their screams were no different from sweet music to the Wights.
When the Wight opened its mouth wide toward the child, the child squeezed their eyes shut.
A pop echoed.
Blood splattered in all directions, and the Wight's body collapsed.
The child gently opened their eyes.
And the child could see.
"...D...ad?"
Their father standing tall, having killed the Wight by popping it with his hand.
Dad... was alive?
Even though his heart had been eaten?
The man too looked down at his own hand with a bewildered expression.
He had killed the Wight in a single blow.
Moreover, the gaping hole in his body had closed up.
No, it had 'recovered.'
This was a 'miracle' impossible by common sense.
"Dad!"
The child cried and clung to their father.
The man too pushed aside the unfamiliar feeling and embraced the child.
Feeling the blood and Worm Plague on himself, he pulled his arm away from the child.
"I-It's alright. It's fine. Are you hurt?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Dad!"
"Good. Thank goodness. I'm glad you're safe...."
Then the man sensed a presence.
Startled, when he turned around, his eyes found a woman.
She carried a pitch-black greatsword over 2 meters long on her back, and wore dark red armor over a snow-white dress.
Her long hair, reaching down to her hips, was half white and half pitch-black.
Her face was pale like a sick person's, and a horned helmet covered the area around her eyes.
Clear, transparent golden eyes visible through the helmet were staring directly at the man.
"Ah...!"
The man looking at the woman unknowingly fell to his knees. Not only that, he bowed his head deeply in worship.
She was a woman he was seeing for the first time. Moreover, she possessed eyes that were cold and detached to a frightening degree.
He couldn't understand why he had knelt and bowed his head.
Also why! How! He couldn't know why he recognized the woman before his eyes as 'Master.'
But the more he thought about that question, the more it disappeared, leaving nothing but loyalty toward this woman.
"D-Dad?"
"...Bow to the great one. Hurry!"
At her father's heavy words, the child flinched and imitated him.
The man spoke to the woman in a trembling voice.
"This lowly servant greets you."
Numerous Wights were visible around them. But they were being hunted by other humans.
They all wore strange armor that was white on one side and black on the other.
The sword soldiers, having killed even the last one, returned to the woman like the man and bowed their heads.
The man smiled. His heart pounded with a feeling as if his whole body was trembling. It was joy.
It was the joy of a lowly human being able to bow before a great existence and pledge loyalty.
The man shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Great being! Queen who rules over the living and death...!"
The man raised his head. He smiled a smile full of ecstasy and gazed at the woman with hazy eyes.
"I have the honor of meeting you, Lady Helga!"