6. Clue>
When Sian first said that he would show her something, Kukraksha looked at him with interest.
A truly great powerhouse never boasts about just anything. And judging by his expression, this person called his young master was brimming with confidence. It meant he took tremendous pride in whatever he was about to show them.
‘Could it be the Great Armor of the Seven Planets from legend? Or the War God’s Spear?’
Thinking that she might finally get to see one of the great treasures she had always wanted since childhood, yet had never been able to find even a trace of, Kukraksha watched with her eyes wide open.
But the change that followed went in a direction she had never anticipated.
At the same time, a memory from her childhood resurfaced.
It was the tale of an astonishing monster that had lived more than several thousand years ago, passed down from the time of her ancestors.
After hearing that story, Kukraksha, filled with the rebelliousness of youth, crossed the human kingdoms and set foot in the Sky Mountains. She had hated seeing the ancestors of the mighty Targang Tribe so terrified.
She wanted to step forward and change that history herself. And she wanted to reclaim the land where her people had once lived.
But the moment she set foot in the Sky Mountains, she understood what her father had meant.
She also understood why her ancestors had been unable to set foot on that land.
The instant she entered, a ferocious presence that seemed capable of tearing her apart could be felt from every direction.
It was not merely a sensation caused by Vandar or sheer force of presence, but a primal fear of a predator, inherited from her ancestors.
She did not even know how she had managed to escape from inside.
Kukraksha had fled madly from the mountains. And from that day onward, she had not taken a single step anywhere near the Sky Mountains.
She had thought she would never feel that presence again, but she sensed it in a place she had never expected.
And from the person called the young master!
It seemed that no one else could feel it, but she knew it without a doubt. She also understood what Koradum, who could see the truth, had seen and why she had fainted in shock.
“Ugh… ghk……”
She had thought it would be different from that time in her childhood. Through training, after all, five stripes had appeared on her forehead. With five stripes, even the beastfolk recognized one as a warrior. She was completely different from the young brat who had gone looking for the Sky Mountains.
That was why, even as she felt the presence beginning to spill out along with the transformation of the person called the young master, she did not run away.
It was a tremendous mistake.
The moment the red scales began climbing up his neck, she should have fled beyond the castle.
By the time regret began, it was already too late. The strength drained from her entire body, leaving her unable even to run.
Along with the terror that made her feel as though her whole body were being torn to pieces, Kukraksha lost consciousness.
“Ungh……”
“Little sister, are you awake?”
“Big sister, are you all right?”
When Kukraksha opened her eyes, Koradum and Veronica were standing around her.
“Whew. I’m fine. Thank you for worrying about me. Are you two all right, little sister and big sister?”
“I’m fine.”
“Me too.”
Although she was second in their order, Kukraksha was the oldest of them. She reassured the younger friends around her, who mixed strange forms of honorifics and titles among themselves, then sat down on the edge of the bed.
“Whew……”
The three of them looked at one another, trying to break the awkward atmosphere. But all three had suffered such a great mental shock that they were unable to recover easily.
Veronica spoke first.
“But what happened to you two…?”
She could understand her own condition, having been shocked by the loss of her little sister, but the other two sisters did not seem to have been affected for the same reason.
The eldest sister had collapsed the moment she saw the young master, while the second sister had apparently collapsed the moment the young master showed them something.
Since Veronica had sensed nothing unusual from him, she asked out of curiosity.
In response, the two of them explained in as much detail as possible what they had felt. Veronica was still human and probably knew nothing of it, but the shock they had received had been immense.
After hearing the whole story, Veronica asked with a worried expression,
“Sisters… will you really be all right?”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“If that person called the young master… continues living here……”
At that, Koradum gave a faint smile and said,
“But we can’t feel it normally, so won’t we be fine? From what I can see, as long as he doesn’t take out that armor, our second little sister seems fine as well… And as long as I don’t try to look too deeply inside him, I have no problem either.”
“Ungh… That’s right. As long as he doesn’t do that strange transformation… I don’t really have a problem either……”
But Veronica was worried about something else.
“That’s not what I mean… Are you really all right? Living beside someone so terrifying?”
“Hmm……”
At those words, both Koradum and Kukraksha let out a low groan.
Rationally, they knew that he would never be dangerous. The person called the young master had said that he dearly cherished his older brother, so he would likely cherish them as well. And although they had known him only briefly, he had not seemed particularly violent. If anything, there was still something childlike about him.
Nor did he give off any force or presence that could threaten them. Everything was carefully contained deep inside him, so as long as they did not overstep themselves, they would probably never again have to feel what they had seen and sensed.
But fear could never be controlled by reason.
Even if you knew a bomb would not explode, it was still frightening. And no one wanted a lion beside them, even if that lion was full and sleepy.
And unlike Veronica, Koradum and Kukraksha, who had already seen the young master’s true nature once, would never be able to escape from that shadow.
“Whew… But it’s not as though we can say anything to the young master. We’ll probably get used to it.”
Since they could not ask anything of the innocent young master, Koradum sighed as she spoke, and Kukraksha sighed beside her as well.
☆ ☆ ☆
Time passed quickly after Sian’s arrival.
During that time, Sian did absolutely nothing. Rather, he seemed determined to make up for the five years he had spent imprisoned, and spent his days lounging about with remarkable intensity.
There was only one difference: the way people looked at Sian.
Before, everyone around him had looked at him with contempt, thinking that the Roman household had produced a hopeless delinquent.
But the residents of Ravilan, having witnessed Sian’s spectacular arrival, could no longer think that way.
He had seemed the very embodiment of a powerful man’s leisure.
Thus, whenever the soldiers saw Sian lying in a huge hammock strung between the walls of the inner castle, gazing only at the sky during their training, they often looked at him with respect.
Sian bit into a piece of fruit and spoke as though he found this reality fascinating.
“So this is why people say the world is interesting. I haven’t changed even a little, you know. Isn’t that right, sister-in-law?”
“Hehe. What matters isn’t what someone does. It’s far more important who did it.”
Veronica, sitting beside him, looked at Sian and spoke.
“By the way, sister-in-law, aren’t you training?”
Sian asked while looking at Rian, Kukraksha, and Selin, who were training diligently below.
“Well, my abilities do grow stronger through training… but they develop much faster when I experience a crisis. However, both my husband and you hesitate to lay a hand on me… so I can’t develop any further. I’m just practicing little by little on my own.”
“A crisis… Then we have something in common.”
Sian responded, recalling his own traits.
“Whew. Still, I want to hear some news soon… It’s a problem that I can’t hear anything about my little sister.”
“Huh… Even though that uncle Narasha asked for it, there’s still nothing?”
Sian spoke with an incredulous expression.
That Rimainu fellow had not seemed like a particularly high-ranking official. If he had been one, he would not have been running around the black market himself.
Unless he had ended up as a corpse, there should certainly have been records of him traveling on a Lashar-Roa in a city near Kerval before its collapse.
If so, there was no way he could have escaped the eyes of the Tian Kingdom’s Intelligence Bureau. King Narasha had always emphasized that information was the greatest power of all. The Tian Kingdom’s Intelligence Bureau, which reflected that philosophy, received an enormous budget every year, but more than repaid it with its capabilities.
It was on an entirely different level from pathetic trash like thieves’ guilds or information guilds.
That was why Sian had thought that, even if his request to investigate Steel’s whereabouts might take time, finding the trail of someone called Rimainu would be instantaneous.
But it was strange that they had been unable to find his whereabouts even after two weeks.
“Yes. They’re apparently still tracking him. Young master, haven’t you heard from that person called Steel…?”
“Hmm… I suppose not. This is strange as well.”
Sian had made the rather childish request that Uncle Narasha spread word that he had returned. The Roman household was supposedly hosting a modest banquet to commemorate the return of its second son, who had gone missing.
It was only natural that ordinary people could not track the movements of a Transcendent. So Sian had intended to announce his return and make Miss Steel come to him of her own accord.
But this had also led nowhere. That meant one of two things.
Either Miss Steel was in a situation where she could not come, or she had no intention of coming.
The second possibility seemed far more likely than the first. He could not imagine Miss Steel ever being in trouble.
But even the second possibility was difficult to accept, because he could think of no reason for it. No matter how much a Transcendent acted according to her own whims, there were certain lines she observed when dealing with another Transcendent. If she had intended to sever ties with him, there was no reason for her to show consideration for his family before leaving.
‘Could something really have happened…….’
Sian racked his brain over the incomprehensible situation, then realized that it was pointless. He knew too little; no matter how much he thought about it, he could not reach a conclusion.
Sian made a decision.
If Miss Steel did not come by the time of the modest banquet being held in Ravilan, he would go looking for her himself.
He had tried activating the Necklace of Vows hanging around his brother’s neck, but whether it was broken or refusing him, its return function did not work.
‘She couldn’t have run off after eating Krona-phon and Nitzmatan… could she?’
It definitely wasn’t because he had to recover the artifacts Miss Steel possessed.
Sian soothed himself as he began moving the hammock.
One week remained until the banquet. If she did not come by then, he would have to go looking for Miss Steel.
Before that, he needed to rest even more intensely.
Veronica watched Sian lying down and beginning to rock the hammock with an expression that said he was hopeless, then stepped away to greet her husband returning from training.
☆ ☆ ☆
A man was smiling as he held a letter in his hand.
On closer inspection, however, it was not a letter. It was an invitation to a banquet distributed to Tian’s high-ranking nobles.
“Heh heh. After being nowhere to be found for five years, he’s finally appeared. Where had he been hiding?”
After reading it, the man vanished in an instant.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Hah. A banquet celebrating the return of the Roman household’s second son……”
Pareon smiled as he looked at the invitation from King Narasha.
He remembered what had happened back then.
When he first heard that someone called Sian had disappeared, he suspected it might be some sort of political maneuver. He simply could not imagine that the man could ever find himself in danger.
But he soon stopped paying attention. Whether that man was around or not had little to do with him. This was the time to expand his influence.
There was a common saying: when the tide comes in, row your boat.
But right now, it was not merely a rising tide. It was a flood.
Tian had secured a superior position over the surrounding kingdoms with its mighty power, and had entered a period of explosive growth, providing tremendous opportunities even to emerging factions.
For Pareon, who had unified the entirety of the Rogadis region, strengthened its foundations, and was preparing to take another leap forward, this was the perfect opportunity. Besides, in a situation like this, the first to pick something up was the one who got to keep it. Even without resorting to territorial warfare, he could expand his influence through trade and politics.
The time for expanding one’s power through territorial warfare had passed. If he tried anything like that now, the Masters would immediately come rushing in, threatening to slice apart his territory. The Kulan Order’s military strength had grown considerably, and the level and numbers of the Vander and ordinary soldiers were incomparable to before, but they were still short on absolute powerhouses. They could defend themselves, but it was difficult to invade other territories while relying solely on military might.
Although the other territories, including Count Seline’s, were no pushovers and he could not monopolize everything, Pareon had nevertheless grown to a size utterly incomparable to his territory of ten years ago, rising into the ranks of the great nobles who, both in name and reality, moved Tyan.
That was why this banquet held such great significance. In any case, there had been no banquet where the great nobles could gather since the transfer of royal authority long ago.
It would not be a bad idea to take this opportunity to greet one another and size each other up. Moreover, Raka-Doom would be attending this time as well. He had been focusing on weapons development in the north after leaving his own territory, but apparently he was coming to see his daughter for the first time in a long while. It would be good to greet him and ask after his well-being while he was here.
He would also meet that man named Sian while he was there.
‘Will he remember me after all this time...? I have no idea.’
Pareon himself had only learned later that Sian, who had visited their territory, was the second son of the Roman family.
It was an unforgettable memory for him, but it might have meant nothing to the other man, so Pareon gave a bitter smile.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Lord Raka-Doom, are you leaving?”
“Yes. I thought I’d go see my daughter for the first time in a while.”
In the north, Cal-Tian, who was responsible for defending Tyan’s ramparts against the Harijans, asked this while looking at Raka-Doom, Tyan’s chief weapons developer.
Raka-Doom was a weapons developer who had made an enormous contribution to defending Tyan’s northern border by combining astonishing knowledge of weapons, acquired from an unknown source, with the innate talent unique to the Dracon race.
The masterpiece he had developed, ‘Gaira,’ was still being distributed to the front lines and making an innovative contribution to subduing the Harijans. It was a masterpiece that had revolutionarily improved the accuracy and destructive power of the Kullaren. Thanks to it, even the swift Harijans clad in sturdy armor could be successfully subdued.
Its power was so tremendous that it could even inflict damage on Harijans with four horns or fewer. It was impossible to affect those with five horns, but even that much was astonishing, and Raka-Doom was currently being praised as a figure who had made his mark on the history of weaponry.
At present, Tyan’s border was in the midst of replacing the Kullarens with Gairas, using the Tallic Stones obtained from hunting the Harijans in the north. The Kullarens, which had become useless to them, were being sold in equal quantities to Usharan and Taran, both of which were at war, in exchange for Tallic Stones, which were then used to continue producing more Gairas.
And in Raka-Doom’s hands were two special weapons that had been miniaturized from those very Gairas.
Their power had been somewhat reduced through miniaturization, but if they struck their target properly, they were monstrous weapons capable of crippling even a Master. The cost of production was prohibitively high, so Raka-Doom had only been able to manufacture two. They were masterpieces among masterpieces, and he was taking them with him this time.
“Are you planning to give them to your daughter as weapons for self-defense?”
“Of course. She’s a clever girl, but she has no martial ability, so I’m quite worried... And... I also have personal use for them. Grit!”
As he said this, Raka-Doom ground his teeth. Seeing that, Cal-Tian asked with an uneasy expression.
“...You aren’t planning to fire that at a person, are you?”
“Of course I’m not planning to fire it at a person. I’m planning to fire it at the bastard who took one wife and then brought home two more.”
“...Haaah.”
“Grit... If only this improved Gaira had been completed when that bastard said he was going to take my daughter... I could have killed him on the spot...”
Cal-Tian sighed. Raka-Doom was planning to shoot the brother of the guest of honor while attending someone else’s banquet. Assuming he was joking, Cal-Tian gave up on saying anything more. For all his talk, Lord Raka-Doom surely could not be serious.
Unfortunately, Cal-Tian did not know that when Rian had come to Raka-Doom in the past to ask for permission to marry, Raka-Doom had actually lost his temper and fired the miniature Gaira he had been developing at Rian. If the Gaira’s improvements had been completed at the time, Rian truly would have suffered a fatal injury.
A question suddenly occurred to Cal-Tian, and he asked Raka-Doom:
“Then, do you know about Sir Sian von Roman, the guest of honor at this banquet?”
“No?”
Raka-Doom answered with an expression that clearly asked why he should know that, and Cal-Tian sighed.
“Even so, since you’re attending the banquet, you should at least know who he is...”
“Ah, I don’t know, and I don’t care about some human brat. I hear he’s only twenty-two. Do I really have to pay attention to someone like that? Besides, if he disappeared when the mountain range collapsed, he must be a weakling.”
“......”
Cal-Tian wanted to say something, but he felt that Raka-Doom, consumed by anger, would not hear him. He decided to see him off instead.
“Understood, Lord Raka-Doom. Have a safe trip and take care of yourself. We’ll protect this place while you’re gone.”
“Yeah, yeah. Keep things safe while I’m away. I’ve hounded the brats below until they’ve learned all the basics, so if something happens, rough them up first. If that still doesn’t work, contact me.”
“Understood.”
‘Nothing will happen, right...?’
For some reason, the sight of Raka-Doom’s back as he departed made Cal-Tian uneasy, but he decided to stop worrying about it.
A banquet held under the protection of the Roman family would be safer than any other banquet, after all.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Hm... The banquet is considerably larger than I expected. It starts tomorrow, right?”
Sian muttered as he watched the preparations for the banquet taking place in Ravilan’s inner castle. The purpose of this banquet was merely to inform Miss Steel of his return, so there had been no need to make it particularly grand, but it was being organized on a much larger scale than expected.
“Hehe. There haven’t been many things to celebrate lately. And the return of the Roman family’s second son after being missing surely warrants something like this. It isn’t really that large-scale.”
Celine answered from beside him.
Considering the position occupied by the Roman family in Tyan, this scale could never be called large. Moreover, as hostility toward the foreign nations trying to torment the rapidly growing Tyan and toward the Harijans continued to grow, the good fortune of the Roman family, the guardian martial clan protecting Tyan, held considerable meaning for the people as well.
Knowing this, King Narasha sent invitations to all the high nobles both to grant Sian’s request and to prepare a festival that would raise the people’s spirits. Even if it was not particularly large-scale, it would certainly help lift everyone’s mood.
“Hmm... I would have preferred to keep things quiet...”
“Hehe. The invitations didn’t go out to that many people. Only a small number will probably attend the banquet in the inner castle. Many of them have likely already arrived.”
Indeed, the inner castle was busy securing and assigning lodgings for the arriving nobles. Since none of them belonged to ordinary, insignificant families, every detail had to be handled with care. Sian, of course, did not concern himself with any of that.
“Well, if that’s the case, it should be fine. By the way... Is my third sister-in-law doing all right?”
His third sister-in-law had become quite anxious, as Uncle Narasha’s diligent search had yielded no further news after La-Shar-Roa.
“Hmm... It seems Miss Veronica is growing impatient... But there are too few clues... Everyone is trying to stop her from rushing out to search immediately.”
“Ha... That’s something.”
“They’re probably still holding her back even now. It’s far too dangerous for Miss Veronica to travel around alone in the first place.”
Veronica had not gone through an easy journey before meeting Rian and finding peace. No—if anything, she had faced threats to her life at every step. Beauty as exotic as Veronica’s was enough to make everyone covet her.
Moreover, since she had no martial ability, there was a limit to how she could overcome crises, no matter how capable she was.
“Well... Uncle Narasha is doing his best, so I’m sure we’ll see results eventually. By the way... There are some guests I know among them.”
“Hmm? How do you know?”
“A wave I remember from La-Shar-Roa came through.”
Celine’s face turned aghast at those words. Even though La-Shar-Roa was located west of Count Seline’s territory, Sian had sensed a wave from there all the way in Ravilan.
“You can sense that?”
“Well... The energy released when La-Shar-Roa activates isn’t insignificant. And Uncle Narasha’s wave isn’t exactly small either...”
“Gasp... His Majesty is coming too.”
“Apparently so. According to the rumors, he was buried in work, but I suppose he wasn’t quite that busy... Hmm?”
Sian yawned and casually uttered words that could be considered lèse-majesté. Then, as though he had sensed something, he rose from the hammock and began looking around.
“Huh? Sian, what’s wrong?”
“Just a moment. Heheh. What is going on?”
Sian let out an empty laugh, hopped out of the hammock, and then kicked off the ground, flying away toward somewhere within the inner castle.
Celine watched Sian before shaking her head. Having suddenly lost her conversation partner, she gazed at the hammock swaying in the air after Sian’s departure.
“Hmm... Is it really that comfortable?”
Since arriving here, Sian had hardly ever left that hammock. No, it would be more accurate to say that he spent the entire day on it.
Except for the time he spent eating and conversing with his family, Celine had stared at Sian lying in that hammock all day long. Eventually, she cautiously climbed into the hammock where Sian had been lying.
Then she lay down and slowly swayed her body from side to side.
“Hm... Hm... It is comfortable.”
After that, she stared blankly at the sky and waited for Sian to return. He would probably come back once he had resolved whatever problem had arisen. That child rarely spent much time away from the hammock.
☆ ☆ ☆
The moment Raka-Doom passed through La-Shar-Roa in Count Seline’s territory, he took the means of transportation he had developed out of his subspace.
The Class-Two subspace, where he stored the various tools and materials necessary for developing his weapons, boasted a storage capacity nearly ten meters in length, width, and height. There was therefore no difficulty at all in carrying a one-person vehicle for his own use.
This two-wheeled vehicle artifact, which he had yet to name because he had developed it himself, had been made with great efficiency and could be powered by either the user’s Vander or a Tallic Stone. He had gotten the idea from a proposal made by a law mage he had once met. At first, he had not been confident in it either, but after completing it, he had been amazed by its efficiency and used it frequently.
Since he was not accustomed to handling Vander, Raka-Doom decided that using a Tallic Stone would be better. He took a small green Tallic Stone out of his subspace and inserted it into the drive mechanism. A green Tallic Stone was by no means cheap, but once inserted, it could operate for a full year. When the cost and time of riding a carriage were taken into account, it was by no means a losing proposition.
Brrrrrrm.
Raka-Doom climbed onto the two-wheeled vehicle artifact as it began moving with a strange ignition sound, stroked the Gaira at his waist, and gripped the handlebars.
“Hoo... Just you wait.”
Raka-Doom uttered those words without it being clear whether he was speaking to his daughter or his son-in-law, then started the engine.
The two-wheeled vehicle artifact began roaring fiercely, powered by the Tallic Stone, and sped toward Ravilan with a thunderous noise.
Riding this vehicle, he would be able to reach Ravilan, which would take nearly ten days by carriage, in one day at most.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Good day. We’ll be verifying your identity. Please present your identification badge.”
The guards stationed at the main gate were so overwhelmed by the flood of high nobles that they could barely keep their wits about them.
‘Gasp… It’s Lord Levadan, the Tiger of the North.’
‘Even Count Sellaine…’
Since this was a party hosted by the Romanga family, the nobles would not come and cause any serious trouble. But that was merely what the high nobles thought. For the guards attending to them, it was practically a matter of life and death.
Just then, a strange object came rushing from afar with a thunderous roar.
In an instant, the eyes of the flustered guards changed.
“Emergency! Unknown object approaching!”
“Sound the third-grade alarm!”
“Evacuate this way!”
After evacuating the high nobles and citizens at the gate one after another, the soldiers began forming a dense formation near the gate with incredible speed.
Gregory, the knight in charge of the gate who stood at the very front, strained his eyes and examined the approaching object in the distance.
‘Hmm… What is that? It isn’t a horse…’
It was far too fast to be a horse, yet far too small to be a Harijan. It was some bizarre object.
There was a set procedure for dealing with situations like this. It was already too close to bombard.
“All personnel, ready your throwing weapons! Once it enters firing range… launch immediately!”
As soon as the order was given, every soldier prepared the personal throwing weapons they carried, their movements frighteningly swift.
Before long, the object drew even closer. Just as the tension reached its peak, the bizarre object came to an abrupt stop outside the throwing weapons’ range.
“……?”
While the soldiers stood bewildered, the bizarre object vanished without a trace, and a figure emerged through the cloud of dust.
As Gregory narrowed his eyes and tried to determine the figure’s identity, laughter rang out from beside him.
“Haha! Lord Raka-doom hasn’t changed a bit.”
‘Raka-doom?’
Gregory turned toward the source of the voice. Standing beside him was Count Pareon, a young warrior who had unified the Rogadis region and emerged as its new ruler.
“Do you know him?”
When a person’s identity could not be confirmed, the best solution was to have a trustworthy guarantor. And Count Pareon was more than qualified for the role.
“Yes, I do. I’ll vouch for him. He’s someone I know.”
“Hey! Kid… Lord! Long time no see!”
At Raka-doom’s voice calling out to him from afar, Pareon answered with a bitter smile.
“It has been a while, Lord Raka-doom. Still, be careful. If you had come even a little closer, you would have been struck by the throwing weapons.”
Raka-doom snorted.
“You think I don’t know the range of the throwing weapon I made? I knew exactly where it was and stopped right there.”
‘No wonder…’
Gregory felt his doubts being resolved. He had wondered how the object had stopped at such a precise distance, but there was a reason. Raka-doom had known its range.
“Anyway… I’ve vouched for your identity, so you may enter. You came to see your daughter, didn’t you?”
“Heh heh. That’s right. She came to see me last time, but I should visit her often whenever I get the chance. When else would I have an opportunity like this?”
The marriage of Rian von Roman, the eldest son of the Romanga family, was known throughout Tian. And the fact that his bride was a girl Raka-doom had taught—and a member of the Dcon tribe at that—was more than enough to become the talk of the town.
Because Pareon was close to Raka-doom, he also knew the hidden stories behind that lavish wedding. That was why he was already worried.
“…This time, please don’t fire anything. What will you do if Count Roman gets angry?”
It was only thanks to Rian deflecting Gaira’s bombardment that time that nothing serious had happened. If he had suffered even a major wound, a terrible disaster might have occurred.
“He won’t die. Kid, you stop Count Roman.”
“…Gran-Vander? I suppose he might stop one slash if I blocked it with my body and got chopped into pieces. Lord Raka-doom would probably take the second slash, though.”
Though they were both counts, they existed on entirely different levels. The House of Roman should have been a ducal house at the very least. It remained a count’s house only because it had no need for a higher title.
No matter how powerful Pareon’s forces were as a count, if Count Roman decided to gather people and make a move, his territory would be set back ten years within a month.
Perhaps he would not even need to gather anyone. Count Roman alone might be enough.
That was how far beyond ordinary beings Gran-Vander was.
“Fine. I understand.”
“…I’ll trust you.”
Raka-doom was so hot-tempered that Pareon never knew what kind of incident he might cause, so he decided to accompany him and keep him under control from the start.
It was unthinkable, but if Raka-doom happened to bring out something strange and fire it at Lord Rian, it would be a catastrophe.
“Grit… grit…”
“……”
‘Good grief…’
Pareon sighed as he watched Raka-doom glare at Lord Rian in the distance, his face red enough to burst.
‘Well… Even I would be angry.’
Unlike human society, where polygamy was permitted to some extent, the Dcon tribe to which Raka-doom and Kora-doom belonged primarily practiced monogamy.
No matter that the marriage had been entered into with everyone’s consent, any father would have trouble keeping his temper if the son-in-law who had whisked away his precious daughter at fourteen showed up with two new wives at his side.
As proof, Raka-doom wore an even more furious expression than before while fiddling with his wrist. Pareon knew that Raka-doom’s subspace was located there, and he was terrified of what might emerge from it.
“Lord Raka-doom.”
“I know, kid.”
“…You’re checking whether Count Roman is nearby, aren’t you?”
“…Tch.”
While Pareon sighed at Raka-doom, he saw Rian spot the two of them in the distance and walk over. Three wives were accompanying him.
Fortunately, the other two wives noticed them and headed in a different direction.
Before long, only Rian and Kora-doom arrived in front of Pareon and Raka-doom.
Rian smiled awkwardly and greeted Raka-doom.
“Father-in-law, I’m glad you arrived safely. By the way… have you encountered any inconvenience?”
“……”
“Dad.”
At Kora-doom’s urging look, Raka-doom reluctantly opened his mouth.
“…There is one inconvenience.”
“……”
Rian merely gave a bitter smile, since he knew exactly what that inconvenience was.
“You… What did you say back then, when you took my daughter away?”
“Back then…”
Before Rian could say anything, Raka-doom spoke first.
“Didn’t you say you would cherish and love my daughter more than anyone in the world?”
“Dad…”
“You be quiet. But there are three of them… You must have an abundance of love, huh? Enough to make a profit even after diversifying your investments among three women.”
“……”
Rian remained silent. Even if he had ten mouths, he would have had nothing to say.
It was certainly not socially unacceptable. For the eldest son of the Romanga family, it would not have been strange to have more than ten wives. This was an age when it was only natural for the strong to possess many things, and the eldest son of the Romanga family would be a match for anyone.
Nor had the relationships been forced. At first, all four of them had been awkward with one another, but now they had accepted the situation and were making an effort to look after each other.
Even so, there was nothing he could say. Rian did not have a daughter himself, but if he did, he was sure he would feel the same way.
“I’m sorry, Father-in-law.”
“Hoo… Enough, enough. Kora, come over here for a moment. And you too, Pareon.”
“Father-in-law?”
“You stay there for a moment. The three of us have something to discuss.”
Confused by the voice calling them over, Pareon and Kora-doom followed Raka-doom.
“Lord Raka-doom, what is it you wanted to discuss…”
“Dad, what could the three of us possibly have to talk about?”
“Hmm. Good. This should be far enough.”
Once they had put some distance between themselves and the others, Pareon watched Raka-doom muttering unintelligible words and examined his face with an anxious expression.
‘…Oh no!’
There was no focus in Raka-doom’s eyes. His reason had already been driven to the brink.
But Pareon had no time to stop him.
Before Pareon or Kora-doom could intervene, Raka-doom swiftly brushed his right hand across his neck.
A red light flashed for a moment, and something resembling a long staff appeared in Raka-doom’s hand.
It was a special weapon, a masterpiece Raka-doom proudly called his own. Based on Gaira, he had drawn inspiration from the mage he had met before and succeeded in miniaturizing it.
“Don’t!”
At Pareon’s shout, Raka-doom raised the object in his hand and aimed it at Rian. He hooked his finger around something and pulled.
Kuwaaang!
A thunderous roar and flash of light, impossible to believe had come from such a thin object no larger than a staff, burst forth from Raka-doom.
Yet compared to the roar that rang out from the direction in which Rian stood, it was nothing more than a drop in the ocean.
The direction where Rian had been standing exploded, sending an enormous cloud of dust into the air. Pareon was horrified at the sight.
“What have you done?! How do you intend to deal with the consequences of this?”
“Quiet, kid. I aimed for his shoulder, so he’s fine… But this is strange.”
“Of course it’s strange! Is his shoulder supposed to make it all right? What in the world…”
But Raka-doom’s doubt concerned something else.
‘Why is there so much dust…?’
Raka-doom’s miniaturized Gaira produced a tremendous roar when fired, but unlike a bombardment weapon, it condensed an extreme amount of energy into its projectile and therefore did not cause widespread destruction. It had been designed as an anti-personnel weapon, not a weapon for large Harijans like Gaira, so there was no reason for its area of destruction to be so large.
Its design had focused solely on immense penetrating power and the speed needed to strike its target. In other words, there was no reason for it to produce such an enormous cloud of dust.
The reason soon became clear. Gleaming red eyes appeared within the dust cloud. Raka-doom did not know what it was, but the dust was clearly connected to those red eyes in some way.
While Pareon stared in confusion, Raka-doom was on the verge of suffocating. Something was glaring at him from within the dust cloud.
“Ghk… Hhk…”
“Grit… That crazy old man… He fired something like this at my brother?”
Sian had caught the projectile that had flown toward his brother with a thunderous roar. He had landed in an instant and was now walking out through the dust cloud.
“……”
“……”
Rian and Kora-doom were currently seated in a reception room prepared inside the inner castle. But two other people were there as well.
Rian looked worriedly at Raka-doom, who sat uncomfortably nearby.
“Father-in-law, are you all right?”
“Ggh… I’m fine. I’m not hurt anywhere.”
Before Sian’s fist could fly into Raka-doom’s face, Rian had managed to grab Sian and restrain him, barely preventing bloodshed.
But despite his words, Raka-doom did not look well at all. The reason was Sian, who kept glancing at him from beside them with an expression that clearly said he disliked something.
More precisely, the ‘something’ inside Sian continued to glare at him, and Raka-doom was on the verge of madness. Feeling the gaze of those powerful and savage eyes, Raka-doom felt as though he could barely breathe. It was the first time he had ever cursed his ability to see inside people so much.
He would rather be beaten to a pulp. This was no different from torture.
“Sian, that is enough. I’m fine.”
“I didn’t do anything, brother.”
“…Sian.”
“Hoo…”
Only then did Sian relax his posture with a sigh.
And when the enormous entity that had been staring at him stopped doing so, Raka-doom also released a deep breath, as though the tension had finally left his body.
“Haaah…”
“Dad, are you all right?”
Kora-doom looked after her father with a worried expression, while Rian also regarded his father-in-law sympathetically.
He did not know the details, but being marked by that child Sian was certainly not a good thing. Sian was frighteningly protective of his family, even if he let everything else slide…
It was a blessing that things had ended with nothing worse than this.
“Father-in-law…”
“…That boy is your younger brother?”
“That’s right, but… have you met Sian before?”
Rian asked in confusion. Raka-doom’s tone had sounded as though he already knew his younger brother.
“What… No. Hoo…”
Raka-Doom felt Sian’s eyes rise before him, and with them, all his reason return in an instant. He also realized that if he did something like this one more time, his daughter might remain safe, but his entire race could be wiped out.
“Damn brat. You’d better be grateful for having a younger brother-in-law like me.”
Watching the unlucky son-in-law who had slipped from his grasp, Raka-Doom let out a hollow sigh and headed outside the reception room.
“…Father-in-law, are you leaving?”
“Yeah. I’m sick of the sight of you. Next time, tell my daughter to come visit me herself.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“And… Cora.”
“Yes?”
“This is for you. The world is a dangerous place, so carry it with you and take good care of it. One of them is… a spare.”
Since he could simply make another one for himself, Raka-Doom handed both of the custom Gairas he had brought to his daughter. His daughter was a proud daughter of the Decon race as well, so she should have no difficulty handling them.
As he gave her the custom weapons, Raka-Doom whispered softly.
“If that bastard ever cheats on you… shoot him with this. If you’re the one who fires, that fellow named Sian won’t say anything, will he?”
“…Dad.”
“Let’s have a long talk another time. I’m too exhausted today.”
Leaving his daughter with a flustered expression behind, Raka-Doom began walking away. He wanted to talk with her, but he was far too mentally exhausted to do so. There would be plenty of opportunities to speak with his daughter in the future.
However, as Raka-Doom dragged his weary feet along, his path was blocked by someone.
“Excuse me!”
“Hmm?”
When he looked, it was the woman who had been with his son-in-law earlier. He did not know whether she was the second wife or the third, but that was not important. He disliked both of them equally.
“Move.”
“I just have one question… Only one!”
Judging from her expression, she clearly would not move until she had spoken, so Raka-Doom decided to let her ask quickly and be on his way.
“Haa… Ask already. I’m tired.”
“That motorcycle you rode here on… and the gun… Where did you get them?”
At the unexpected question, Raka-Doom looked at her as if he had no idea what she was talking about.
“Motorcycle? Gun? What are you talking about? The thing I rode here on doesn’t even have a name yet. And what exactly is a gun?”
Only then did Veronica, the woman blocking Raka-Doom’s path, realize that she had spoken in confusion and without any coherence. The people here could not possibly know about motorcycles or guns.
“I mean the two-wheeled artifact you rode here on, and the object you shot at my husband.”
Raka-Doom’s expression tightened slightly at the words “my husband,” but he was too tired to argue over it, so he opened his mouth.
“Got them? I made both of them myself. If you’re finished, move.”
“That can’t be…”
Raka-Doom strode past Veronica, who wore a hollow expression. Then, he suddenly realized that the human woman he had just passed gave off a feeling similar to that of someone he had seen long ago.
Black hair, black eyes, and an exotic appearance. Their surnames were different, but there were several similarities in their faces as well.
Having reached that thought, Raka-Doom turned around and asked Veronica, who had sunk to the floor.
“Hey, you. Is your name Rimainu… or something like that?”
“……”
At Raka-Doom’s unexpected question, Veronica’s face brightened. Seeing this, Lian, Cora-Doom, and Sian also gathered near the entrance of the reception room to listen to what Raka-Doom had to say.
☆ ☆ ☆
Raka-Doom had met that fellow, Rimainu, five years earlier.
Raka-Doom had remained in Palleon’s territory for the sake of his own curiosity, but once he had finished researching all the relics in the man’s warehouse, he lost interest and left the Rogadis region. Palleon had been extremely disappointed, but there was no way to stop Raka-Doom once he had decided to leave.
As Raka-Doom wandered from place to place, he received an offer from the Great Arcane Society.
To Raka-Doom, who was always thirsting for knowledge and new technology, it was an incredibly tempting offer. Nor could he see any falsehood in the person who had brought him the Great Arcane Society’s proposal. Besides, there was no way a massive society with influence across the continent would deceive someone merely because he belonged to the Decon race.
Thus, Raka-Doom accepted the offer.
Just as the Great Arcane Society had promised, the place was a whole new world. He was a little dissatisfied that his identity had to remain secret and that he had to live in isolation because the research was conducted in a secret location, but even if that had not been the case, Raka-Doom would never have thought of going outside in the first place.
There was so much astonishing new knowledge. Raka-Doom had steadily read the Great Arcane Society’s papers, but the things he encountered there were on an entirely different level.
Master craftsmen, engineers, and arcanists whose abilities ranked among the finest on the continent.
A materials warehouse that contained everything imaginable, enormous resources, and an abundance of manpower.
He could conceive of things he had never even imagined before, and build everything he had previously only dreamed of making.
For Raka-Doom, who had been born a craftsman, it was practically heaven, and every minute and second of his life there was precious. He had entrusted his daughter to Gron-Pila before entering the place, so Raka-Doom could devote himself to his research without a single worry.
It was while participating in the Great Arcane Society’s secret project that Raka-Doom met that fellow.
Rimainu—a man who stood out even among the unusual and brilliant people gathered there.
There were many people cleverer than him, and arcanists capable of using magic at a higher level than him were everywhere.
But he was special. A person’s value was determined by how much other people desired what that person possessed. By that calculation, Rimainu’s value was comparable to that of Takyion, the president of the Arcane Society.
There were still a few Grand Arcanists, but there was only one Rimainu on the entire continent.
Knowledge did not simply fall from the sky. It always developed based on the needs of those around it, the knowledge that had come before, and the beliefs of its society.
Yet Rimainu possessed knowledge that seemed to have developed from an entirely different system—as if it had dropped out of the sky from somewhere no one knew—and he was able to apply it with ease.
In the first place, Rimainu seemed to have come merely to assist with this project, while actually belonging to an organization above the Great Arcane Society. An organization that stood even higher than one so enormous.
The degree of security was proof of that. Although the project was called a secret project, the other participants, including Raka-Doom, could maintain their connections with the outside world so long as they placed a confidentiality spell upon themselves and refrained from discussing anything related to the project.
Rimainu was different. He was participating in the project after having his very existence erased from the world.
Since Raka-Doom and Rimainu had many opportunities to meet for work during the project, they naturally came to exchange a certain amount of personal conversation. They spoke of Rimainu’s brief history, the name of a lost blood relative, and various other things.
“Boy, don’t you want to go outside?”
“Hehe. I don’t have anyone I know out there anyway, and this place suits me… Besides, I have to atone for my sins. If I can finish this project and make the world a better place, perhaps I’ll be able to atone, even if only a little, for the sins I committed.”
Raka-Doom had wondered what crime he had committed, and later heard that a project in which Rimainu had participated as a key member had gone wrong, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. And, as far as Raka-Doom knew, there had been only one incident in recent times in which hundreds of thousands of lives had been lost.
‘So this fellow was involved in Kerval’s project… He’s foolishly kind, too. I wonder if it’s simply his nature.’
From what he had heard, the disaster had not been Rimainu’s fault, but it seemed he had been unable to fully shake off his guilt over the deaths of hundreds of thousands.
However, that was not something Raka-Doom could do anything about, so he ignored it and devoted himself to his own work.
The period during which he was able to focus on his research was not long. Barely two years. He had originally wanted to stay longer, but something important came up, and he had no choice but to return to the outside world.
He received news that his daughter was getting married.
At first, he thought he had heard wrong. His daughter had been twelve when he entrusted her to someone else. She was fourteen now.
But the news delivered to him was undoubtedly true.
Unlike Rimainu, who belonged to the higher organization overseeing the project, Raka-Doom was allowed to exchange letters with the outside world. Of course, they had to undergo thorough censorship.
After hearing the news, Raka-Doom decided to take the small Gaira he had been making to pass the time during his research and leave the facility. Naturally, he first placed a confidentiality spell upon himself, swearing never to reveal anything he had seen or heard there.
The project was being conducted in secret, but its scale was considerable, and there were many people working there. If they killed everyone merely because someone wanted to quit, that would hardly help keep the secret.
Everything that happened afterward was already known.
After leaving, Raka-Doom fired the small Gaira at Lian. He then fell for the ploy of King Narasha, who had been captivated by its power, and entered the armory of the Great Northern Wall in exchange for covering up the incident. There, he displayed his skills to the fullest.
The technology used to create Gairas and two-wheeled artifacts was crude beyond comparison to the technology used at the project site, so it did not violate the confidentiality spell. Raka-Doom succeeded in producing Gairas and various weapons without difficulty, and his fame grew even further.
“…And that is everything I know.”
When Raka-Doom finished speaking, silence descended over the reception room. One problem had been solved, but a new one had emerged, leaving everyone deep in thought.
One question had been answered: why even Tian’s intelligence agency had been unable to find any trace of someone named Rimainu until now.
But another problem had arisen. Even if they knew where he was, they had no way to reach him.
That was why everyone was now pondering the matter.