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Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu (Light Novel) - Volume 6, Chapter 2: Yes, I’ve Certainly Found Him
Volume 6, Chapter 2: Yes, I’ve Certainly Found Him
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
What should he do?
Sion was worried. It’d be bad if things continued at this rate. He knew that. He had to change things.
If Roland went crazy along with the rest of the crazed world, they’d be destroyed. If they became powerful just to fight those with power, they’d be walking a path of destruction.
Power… power was the only thing that could move them forward.
So… they should conquer Runa, then. Become stronger. But even that wouldn’t be enough.
So they should conquer Nelpha, then. Become stronger. But that wouldn’t be enough either.
How about even farther than that? Say they used the Relics to conquer Cassla and beyond, all the way to Gastark’s doorstep. What waited for them on that path?
Nothing at all. Even if they won, they wouldn’t really win anything. He’d just be there alone, standing atop a mountain of bodies, just like his father the late king had…
Did he really not have any other options? Wasn’t there something better than using the Relics?
Sion was returning to his office from the throne room through an enormous, dark, and cold hallway, wrapped up in his own thoughts.
“Surely there’s another way…”
But no matter how much he thought, he couldn’t think of anything.
His path was like this hall. It was so long that he couldn’t see the other end, no matter how strong he was.
Gastark’s king was already powerful, and there was no way he was satisfied just as things were now. The more powerful one became, the more they wanted to use their power. It was human nature.
Everything depended on how they used great power when it fell into their hands…
Sion forced his thoughts to come to a stop to consider that point.
“…How they used their power… but what if Gasark’s king is using his power to save the world? What if he plans to make a peaceful world with no war? And what if he uses that power to fight me? Then…”
Then neither of them would end up saving anyone. How absurd.
The corners of Sion’s mouth twitched upward into a smile. It was just so pointless. Fruitless.
To think that the same thought processes and the same feelings could clash with the intent to kill, betting thousands… no, millions of lives in the process.
“Ridiculous…”
Ridiculous, and yet… this world was filled to the brim with things that were equally as ridiculous.
It was hopeless…
A dull thud suddenly resounded through the hall. It was the sound of Sion punching the wall.
“Is there nothing I can do anymore?”
Blood dripped from his fist. But he didn’t feel any pain. All he could feel was anger. Anger towards himself and anger towards the world.
This world was mad.
Even children knew that. Because they had to live in it.
He recalled his mother, who had been treated worse than a dog. He thought of the commoners, who were treated like garbage in death no matter how hard they tried.
And his friends… Ryner, Kiefer, Tyle, Tony, and Fahle… he could still picture them all writhing in agony…
That was why he became king. So he could change all of those things. So he could change this mad world.
And then he finally became king…
‘What could he even do anymore?’
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered.
This whole topic was stupid. There was no need for him to become king after all. If he was just going to be stopped by something like this, then there was no point in him being king.
If this was how it was going to end, then Froaude should have been king instead. Nothing would have changed. No, they might as well have just had one of those useless, greedy nobles be king. It wouldn’t matter.
But Sion was king now. So…
“So I’m going to change things!” He yelled and hit the wall once more.
There had to be other paths, too. He wouldn’t just do whatever Froaude told him to do. He wouldn’t just do whatever Gastark told him to do or whatever the world told him to do.
For that, he needed just enough power to go against Gastark…
He’d use power through those around him. One’s rule depended on how they used power, after all.
He wasn’t trying to be the just one. He was just trying to find a path where fewer people needed to die. One where they could protect the Southern Continent against Gastark’s invasion.
A path like that had to exist somewhere.
He needed to find it.
To do so, he first had to have complete control over Estabul. He had to go to Estabul himself in the near future to win their nobility over, but… that would be extremely dangerous.
As long as he was within Roland, assassins from Gastark couldn’t hurt him even with the power of Heroic Relics. Because Lucile was there. It was unlikely that anyone could get to him in Roland, no matter how monstrous they were, due to Lucile’s protection. But if he were to leave Roland and go to Estabul instead… then Lucile wouldn’t protect him.
Would Gastark follow him there?
He did have to go himself if he wanted to win Estabul over…
This was a bet, but not the kind where he’d either win or lose.
Claugh was in Estabul now. Sion didn’t think that it was too dangerous… but if there were some sort of crisis while he was gone, Sion couldn’t think of anyone else he could entrust Roland to.
He kept thinking, now feeling like everything might be alright.
He pushed the numerous problems flooding his head out to focus on thinking about a plan to get himself in Estabul as he approached his office.
It was a small door in the middle of a huge hall. It was truly plain, entirely lacking decorations. People who didn’t know him would surely be surprised to see him by such a drab door, similar to that of guards’ or maids’ quarters… but he hated gaudy things.
It was probably out of resentment for his father, who lived his own life in luxury through subjugating the common people… He toyed with and stepped on people however much he pleased, and the one who suffered most by his actions was Sion’s mother.
In any case, he just needed a room big enough to work and sleep in. That was all.
But even Fiole had something to say when he chose this room - “If Your Majesty is sleeping somewhere like this, then I’d better sleep on the side of the road!”
Sion reached for the doorknob with a smile.
They were still dreaming back then.
Fiole saw him as a dream, an ideal, without any basis for believing that at all…
“We’ve become awfully weak, haven’t we…”
He thought he could do anything when he was a child. He didn’t see impossible things as impossible back then.
He always wondered why people called things impossible back then. Weren’t they actually pretty simple? All it took was hard work. That’s what he had believed.
He thought that a world where everyone smiled was a simple thing to achieve…
And then.
His smile became sad.
What about his powerlessness? What if he only brought the world to despair?
He couldn’t stop now.
His hand touched the doorknob. He made to open it—
“Mm…”
—But his hand stopped.
The door was a bit stiff and he could feel someone’s presence on the other side.
An assassin?
Sion’s eyes narrowed. An assassin from where? And how many were there? He focused his mind on the presence inside of his room, then tilted his head. There was no way that an assassin skilled enough to make it into Roland undetected would be unable to erase their presence like this.
He only felt one person, but… that was probably just a trap. One meant to make him approach carelessly… They must think of him as a fool. No, rather… this presence was here specifically to ensure that he noticed it.
So how was he supposed to react?
Should he enter the room alone? Or should he call for reinforcements?
“…Hm.”
If they meant for him to sense that single presence, then it was possible that they were trying to get him to call for reinforcements. A faint smile rose to Sion’s lips.
“Lucile… are you there?” Sion asked quietly.
“……”
No answer.
But he was there.
That was just the kind of guy he was. He didn’t show himself unnecessarily, but… in reality, he was there.
“At least I think so…”
Sion smiled bitterly.
It was possible that he really wasn’t there at all.
But if he wasn’t here by Sion’s side at all right now, then that meant that whoever was in his room probably wasn’t a threat. That was what Lucile’s absence meant. Because this was Roland.
As long as they were in Roland and Lucile still thought of him as a suitable king, he’d take care of any threats to Sion. Because that was the kind of place this was.
Sion tried asking again. “Think I can take care of it alone?”
“……”
No answer, as expected…
“Don’t overestimate me,” Sion said. “I’m really weak compared to you, you know?”
Sion sounded a bit happy as he spoke. He readied himself for battle, letting power flow into his body. How many years had it been since he fought a real battle? Of course he hadn’t stopped training, but… if he compared himself now to when he was sixteen and in the same military school as Ryner and Kiefer…
“I wonder how much my skills have dulled since then.”
He didn’t erase his presence. His opponent should be aware of him anyway. They should know that Sion was there, standing in front of the door but not entering. They’d probably set countless traps for him inside.
Sion just looked more and more pleased. “Excellent. Let’s do this.”
With that, he took a deep breath… and exhaled as he opened the door and entered.
He looked up. A single book was falling from the top of the door…
It had been sitting on it so that it fell on him when he entered. It was the kind of trick a mischievous grade schooler would play on their teacher…
“Tch.”
Sion scowled. It distracted him. His opponent had completely tricked him by bringing his attention to the book.
It would have been a poisoned knife or something equally deadly if it had been a real trap.
But what they’d set had served its purpose. It distracted him, something even a single book could do. It was even one of his own books…
“…Not bad.”
Sion assumed a defensive posture.
The next attack should come soon. He’d survive that first and then figure out what to do from there. He tensed his body, using his left arm to cover his face and neck and his right arm to cover his vitals. That way he’d have a higher chance of surviving even if they hit him somewhere vital.
But…
“……”
No attack ever came.
Sion looked around the room. No enemies.
There were piles of documents, a table, chairs, a desk, and a half-open door leading to something like a bedroom for him to sleep in if sleep became absolutely necessary. And it was from that half-open door that he could sense a presence…
“……”
Sion stared at it wordlessly.
A thick dictionary was lying in wait at the top of that door too, by the way…
“……”
He was at a loss for words entirely.
He began to walk slowly towards the bedroom, grabbing the dictionary off the top of the door as he passed it.
It was a small room with nothing but a bed. Just standing in the doorway was enough to see the whole room. There was absolutely nowhere to hide. Well… it might be possible to hide in his bed…
There shouldn’t be anyone hiding in such a terrible hiding place.
And yet…
“……”
Sion didn’t say anything. The sight was just too terrible.
There was certainly an assassin. In his bed.
But the assassin… wasn’t hiding in his bed. And yet he was still in it.
At least go under the covers! But no. The covers had been kicked off haphazardly.
And the assassin… had dark hair messed up from sleep, and eyes that looked like they’d never even opened before for how comfortable they were closed. Drool was dribbling out from his mouth and onto Sion’s pillow. It looked like the assassin had just come to pester him…
All Sion could do was sigh, defeated.
And then he remembered that he had a dictionary in his hand.
“Oh?”
Then he raised it up and tossed it up. It flew in a beautiful arc.
“Ooh~”
And then it reached the end of its arc… right on the assassin’s face.
“Gyaaaaahhh!”
“C’mon, Ryner! Don’t ‘gyaah’ me. You need to hurry up and get ready or you’ll be late for school!”
Ryner looked up, surprised. “Huh? S, school? We had school today? Huh…”
Ryner looked around, confused and still half asleep.
He looked around… and around and around again…
And then he saw Sion… and stared up at him dumbly. “Oh, Sion. Morning.”
“Morning.”
“…This is, y’know. Your room. Right?”
“Yup.”
“…Oh, then I’m already… done with stuff like school… ah, it’s all coming back. Right, right.”
“Are you finally awake now? Then you can tell me why—”
“Ah, it’s fine. It’s whatever.”
With that, Ryner promptly closed his eyes and returned to the world of dreams.
Sion hmmed and left the bedroom, found a bigger book that was ten times the size of the first dictionary, the very biggest book in his bookshelf…
Just feeling how heavy it was in his hands made him shiver instinctively.
“Th-this is really heavy, isn’t it? Too heavy even. I could kill someone here… but I can’t stop now. I just can’t stop now.”
He had to lift it with both hands to ensure that he didn’t drop it…
Ryner opened one eye to look back at him when he entered. Soon enough, both eyes were soon wide open in shock. “Y-you idiot! If you throw that, I… noooo don’t throw iiiiittt!!” Ryner yelled as he frantically scampered off the bed.
Ryner moved fast, and Sion… though he’d been called a genius for his abilities at the military academy, had let himself get far too dull to actually hit Ryner with the book. It was like they were on completely different levels.
Ryner would have been real trouble for him if he’d been a real enemy.
“A-are you tryin’ to kill me!?” Ryner screamed.
Sion smiled. “Oh. Morning.”
“Don’t just ‘morning’ meeeeeeeee!! You were seconds away from murder!”
Sion shrugged. “But you tried to kill me too, didn’t you? You put books on my doors.”
Ryner picked the normal sized dictionary off of Sion’s bed. “Next time I’ll hollow this baby out and stick a snake inside, or maybe a frog…”
In the end, all he cared about was perfecting his door trap.
Anyway.
Sion looked around the room again. “So when did you return?”
Ryner suddenly looked like a different person… but one that Sion knew well. He sat on the bed, looking listless. “This morning.”
“And then?”
“Huh? What do you mean, ‘and then?’ I got back and I was tired so I went to bed. The end.”
Then Ryner lay back down on his side.
Sion watched him, exasperated. “Hey, you… You’ve spent the past several months searching for Heroic Relics. You’ve finally returned home after all that, and all you can think about is that it’s naptime? Don’t you have, you know, a little more information to report to me? Like information about other countries, or about the Relics, or about those guys from Gastark who you fought… No, wait, weren’t you in the Iyet Republic? Why are you even here?”
“Oh, I get it,” Ryner said and folded his arms to think about it all. He spent a few seconds like that, mulling things over in his head, and then seemed to know where to go, as he bopped his fist on his open palm. “Oh yeah! I like, understood the truth of the world recently.”
“The truth?”
“Yeah. See, I washed away in the ocean waves, unconscious… and then when I woke up again I was on this amazing beach.”
“Hmm. A beach?”
“Yep, a beach. And apparently that beach belongs to the Eris family.”
“Oh. To Ferris’ family?”
“Yep. Ferris’. Anyway that beach was so nice… I just had to nap. I mean, it felt so good and the sky was so blue. It was the best. The only sounds were the waves and the sea birds…”
Ryner looked like he was enjoying the thought of it so much that Sion tried imagining it too. “Yeah, it does sound nice,” Sion said.
Sion’s imagination brought him a scene just as nice as the one Ryner was imagining. The beach he imagined was one where he was curled up napping with Ryner, watching him for signs of reaction as he stealthily placed a hermit crab on Ryner’s sleeping face…
“It seems like it’d be a lot of fun,” Sion said.
“Right?” Ryner replied, unaware of the imaginary hermit crab on his face. “You’d totally nap on a sweet beach like that, right?”
“Yep.”
“So anyway, I really got to thinking. Isn’t it fine if I live my life relaxing on that beach? Like, what’s wrong with relaxing? Why spend every day so busy when the ocean is so wide…”
“Ah, I get that,” Sion couldn’t help but say, nodding in agreement.
“So why be busy at all?” Ryner continued. “What’s wrong with how things are now? So I like, thought about that and slept and stuff.”
“Mm-hm.” Sion nodded again.
“And then I finally realized! It’s him! It’s all his fault! Sion Astal, the heinous king of the Roland Empire, is the guy behind all my problems!”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Sion said, nodding again. “So you decided to kill me?”
“Yeah.”
“With a dictionary?”
“With a dictionary.”
“And that’s the truth you arrived at after several months of searching?”
“It’s like, seriously amazing, right?” Ryner asked, overflowing with confidence.
“…Yes, it’s amazing. Truly amazing,” Sion said. He couldn’t help but laugh.
Right then, he was making an expression that he’d never show his subordinates. One he’d never show his nobility. One he’d never show his people… Even Fiole never saw it…
It was the pure smile of a boy who thought anything was possible.
But it soon disappeared.
Sion looked at Ryner with sharp eyes. “But really, Ryner, you’ve been awfully rash. I’m the king of this country, you know? They call me a hero king out on the streets. What penalty do you think someone who tries to kill me gets?”
“Uwah, there it is. Theeeere it is. You just called yourself a hero king, didn’t you? Uwaah, that’s sooo embarrassing. I’ve always wondered where that ridiculous self confidence of yours even comes from.”
Sion puffed out his chest, but his expression remained honest. “Well, you know. I’m just the kind of guy who was born to be king.”
“Seriously, aren’t you embarrassed hearing yourself say that shit?”
“I can’t help it if it’s true. See, I just shine brighter than other people. It’s a shine coming straight from my pure and noble heart.”
“Nooooo stop! Stop right there. Don’t say anything else. I’m embarrassed just hearing it. Anyway, I’m gonna kill you. Then I’ll live a peaceful life here in this country.”
But Sion didn’t stop. He smiled playfully. “No, you need to hear more. I’ll say it right in your ear so you can’t escape!” With that, Sion climbed on the bed to attack Ryner.
“Uwa, sto… Nooo, heeelp meeee~ I’m gonna be raaaped~”
With that, Ryner easily let Sion hold his arms down to the bed.
They wrestled there on the bed together, Ryner kicking at Sion vigorously.
“Oh? I won’t lose,” Sion said. “I’ll just hit you back—”
And then Sion’s body flew over to land against the other side of the bed. Sion watched the ceiling for a moment from his place with his back to the bed.
“……”
He lay there for quite some time, just staring at the white ceiling in a daze…
“So? Are you going to rape me?” Sion asked. “As expected of the rumored sex maniac.”
Ryner looked at Sion with sleepy eyes, sighed, and then lay next to him. “Sion.”
“Mm?”
“You’re pretty tired, aren’t you?”
“Am I?”
“Yeah. You’re tired.”
Sion stared back up at the ceiling. It was an empty white, with no designs at all.
The bed felt nice and soft. He drifted off to sleep for a moment.
When was the last time he lay in bed like this, anyway? He tried to remember, but all that came to mind was all the time he’d been spending at his desk. He even dozed off there for his sleep. So he really didn’t use the bed much.
But that wasn’t the real reason he was tired. He’d gone many days without sleeping before. Why should this be any different?
The real reason…
“…Yeah,” Sion said. “Maybe I was tired. But it’s alright now.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because I’m lying in bed now.”
“Huh? That’s considered a comeback for you? I mean, I sleep fifty hours a day.”
“Fifty hours per day? What an amazing scientific feat.”
Ryner looked triumphant. “I’m a master of it.”
“Oh, a master. Sounds cool. Think I could do it?”
“Nah, it’s impossible for you.”
“…Yeah, probably. But let me dream.”
“Fine. Step one is to quit your job.”
“…I can’t really…”
“Then it’s impossible.”
He said it so easily. Sion smiled bitterly. “This is a bit of a shock,” he said, then raised his head a bit to look back up at the ceiling.
Ryner looked up, too. “Somethin’ up there?”
“The ceiling.”
“Ah, the ceiling. Yep. You’re tired alright.”
“…Okay, time for a come-back,” Sion said and pulled himself up. He ran a hand through his hair to straighten it out, then sighed. Turned to Ryner, who was still lying down. “It’s about time we talked about work.”
“Huh!? Y, you’re… a monster… aww, I’m seriously too tired for this,” Ryner said and scrunched his nose up at Sion.
Sion laughed at the face he was making. “Amazing, right? I’m not usually able to make a come-back this quickly. It must be a side effect of sleeping with you, Ryner.”
Ryner scrunched his face up even harder. “Uwaah, that’s a terrible side effect…”
“I know. I’m disappointed too, even though I’m the one who said it in the first place,” Sion said and laughed. But he was telling the truth.
He did think that Ryner being here saved him. He would have been thinking himself into a corner by now if he were alone. But it was alright now.
There was no need to torment himself about it even if the whole world was mad. Because there was surely a path he could still take. He could remember when he believed that with all his being right now. He could remember how to believe it. He smiled from the bottom of his heart with Ryner by his side.
He’d recovered some of his energy, and felt better and better the longer he looked at Ryner’s pouting face. “So about work—”
“I told you, I’ve been seconds from dying of exhaustion this whole time. That’s why I decided to quit—”
“Right,” Sion said, ignoring his protests. “And now I have plenty of work for you, since you’re finally back in Roland with me now.”
“No, there’s no way…”
“Where’s Ferris, anyway?” Sion asked. “She must have come back too, right?”
“Hey… just listen to me,” Ryner said, tired. “Ferris is the same as always, y’know? She was like, ‘I’m not made of free time, unlike you. I have places to be. Go visit Sion’s room and make some preparations to assassinate him. I’ll see you there when I’m done,’ so she said, but she hasn’t come at all… and you weren’t coming either, so…”
Sion nodded. “And waiting made you sleepy so you slept, right?”
“Nah, I fell asleep as soon as I got here.”
“Ah… I see. So Ferris went to get dango, right?”
Ryner scowled. “Hey, what’s with this? You just took some notes in your head, didn’t you? Ferris equals dango and Ryner equals naps, right?”
“Mm? Am I wrong?”
Ryner thought about it for a second. “Nah, she’s probably getting dango.”
“Now that that’s settled, can we move on?”
“I hate it, but yeah, I guess so,” Ryner said.
Sion nodded. “I hate to push all this work on you when you’ve only just come back, buuut—”
“Then don’t!”
Sion ignored his objection. “I’ll have you and Ferris accompany me to Estabul.”
“Whaaaaat!? We just got back! Are you some kind of demon? Man, what a pain. I don’t wanna.”
“Hm. Then I’ll start with explaining Roland’s current situation—”
“The hell is that ‘hm’ for!? I just told you I won’t do it, so what’re you explaining this for!?”
Sion ignored that, too. “Anyway, I’ll be needing a guard because it’s dangerous for me to leave Roland. But I feel much better about doing it now that you’re here. I’m sure you’ve said ‘I’ll even lay down my life for His Majesty!’ lots before anyway.”
“Who!? Who would say that??”
“Now’s the time to prove it!”
“Hey, y—”
“If you don’t do as I say, I’ll make good use of my power as king to make you miserable!”
“…Ah, hey, that’s pretty scary,” Ryner said, his voice shaking from fear…
Sion was in better spirits than he’d been in a while. Ryner, on the other hand…
“…Yeah…”
…Was just as depressed as Sion was cheerful.
Sion smiled. “But it’s not like we’re departing this instant. You can rest for a while.”
“…Yeah…”
“Oh, I know. That Arua kid that Iris brought here is on Eris property right about now. Apparently he’s getting along well with Iris. How about you go visit them?”
That finally got a reaction out of Ryner. “Eris? Like, Ferris’ family’s house? I guess I could go visit, yeah.”
“Or you could help me work—”
Ryner stood up in a split-second. “Right! Right right right! I had something I needed from Arua! R, right, anyway, see you later, Sion!”
With that, Ryner staggered out, completely worn out from their conversation. Sion watched him go, then stood up from the bed. “Now then, I have some work to do too…”
Sion’s words trailed off. He’d noticed the massive book laying on the floor.
“Ohh Ryneerr~! Help me with this before you go!”
---
A little earlier, in a military facility in Estabul.
Estabul’s army had long since been dismantled to lessen the chances of an uprising, so its former soldiers were scattered about the country now…
But it was still a military facility in Estabul.
Roland’s military facilities were, for the most part, black and plain. But Estabul’s were fancier, walls full of calligraphy and designs. Apparently the point of them was to encourage intellectuality and obedience…
A man stood inside, looking at the designs on the wall. He tilted his head. “So this is supposed to… make people smart and obedient, huh?”
He had fiery red hair, keen eyes, and a toned, muscular build. He wore Roland’s military uniform. Everything about him was sharp. He was currently a marshal of Roland, but… there was a name he was better known by here in Estabul: Crimson-Fingered Claugh Klom. It was a name on the same level as a demon’s here - a demon whose hands had been dyed red with blood on a great many battlefields…
Claugh had taken an army here to Estabul on Sion’s orders. His goal was to reorganize Estabul’s military and find promising individuals to send to Roland. So he was here to interview people, and then send them to Sion if he thought they were worth their weight.
“Still, I wonder if there’s actually gonna be someone who stands up to a marshal’s standards here,” Claugh said with a shrug, then turned around.
There stood a lone woman. She was pretty, with dark blue hair that was rarely seen in Roland. She was gracefully beautiful, and had a mature air around her that made it hard to believe that she was only seventeen. She was the former princess of Estabul, Noa Ehn.
She was hailed as a hero and allowed to join Roland’s nobility because of her selfless actions during the Estabullian rebellion, where she alone stood up against the rampaging nobility who had taken hostages, surrendering to ensure the fewest casualties possible… or so the story went.
Reality was different. Froaude had set up a trap for Estabul to fall into, and Noa agreed to take full responsibility for it in order to protect her people. So she was given noble status in Roland.
She was criticised for the fact, called a traitor by her own people for doublecrossing them for a lofty life in Roland…
Claugh looked at her. “Y’know, your dark blue hair is like your trademark.”
Noa looked surprised to hear that. “Really? I think it’s a fairly common color among Estabul’s noblewomen, though… You have already seen quite a few people with this hair color here in Estabul.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yes, really.”
Claugh tilted his head again. “Hmm… but I think I’d remember seein’ someone with hair as beautiful as yours.”
Noa turned bright red.
She really was pretty, Claugh thought. She’d get a bad reputation from the jealous, being as sensible and beautiful as she was…
Someone suddenly started yelling from the door. “Is Claugh Klom hereeee!”
Claugh grinned. “Yep! Right here!”
“Are the rumors that you have been seducing our Lady Noa true!?”
Claugh laughed. “What if they are?”
“Then I’ll fucking kill you!!”
In the end, Noa was still beloved to the people of Estabul despite the rumors. She was supposed to be the one to introduce Claugh to the promising individuals among Estbaul’s military and nobility, but… somehow, everywhere they went ended up rowdy instead.
Guys like this were real idiots. Everyone knew who they were in Estabul, sure, but against Crimson-Fingered Claugh Klom…
“Diieeeeee!” He yelled, throwing himself at Claugh.
What a major dumbass…
“Ha. He’s pretty promising,” Claugh said. He was a major dumbass too, after all.
“Th-that’s dangerous, Your Excellency… Even you shouldn’t challenge Marshal Klom… oh, geez…”
Noa looked between them, unsure of who to cheer for - the young man from Estabul, or Claugh…
The Estabullian had the dark blue hair that they were just talking about. It framed his face in waves. He probably hadn’t turned twenty yet. He began to draw Estabul’s characteristic letters of light in the air to cast a spell…
“Too late!” Claugh yelled, slamming his foot into the teen’s face with the speed of a gazelle.
“Guwah!?”
Match set.
Blood spurted from the teen’s nose.
“Oh,” Noa said, flustered. “You’re bleeding…”
Claugh didn’t pay her any mind. “You’re a hundred years too early to be challengin’ me!”
The teen sat up. “Damn, you’re strong. Guess Crimson-Fingered Claugh was hot shit after all.”
“No, well, you were pretty good too.”
The teen’s eyes shone. “R-really?”
“Yeah. What’s your name?”
“Namphen.”
“Aight, Namphen. You’re a second lieutenant now.”
“S-second lieutenant!? Of where?”
“Roland, obviously.”
“A-are you kidding?”
“Nope. Tellin’ the truth.”
“But I-I’m from Estabul,” Namphen said.
“King’s orders. People with merit can be promoted to whatever they rank they earn, all the way up to marshal.”
“Seriously?”
“I already told you I’m serious. Damn, you’re persistent. If you understand, then go outside and tell whoever you’re with that you’re a second lieutenant now and that Claugh Klom said they can come challenge him whenever they want. Got it?”
Namphen nodded. “S-second lieutenant… amazing. Roland’s king is amazing.”
Then he left.
Claugh had been doing this all morning. Noa had been watching the whole time, and even now she was pretty unsure of how this all worked. “I-is it really okay to choose people like this?”
“Yeah, it’s fine,” Claugh said. “He was pretty strong.”
“Yes, but should strength alone really decide his rank?”
“It’s fine. He’s an idiot but his heart’s in the right place… I’ll promote a bunch of idiots like this guy above Luke and make a fool outta him while he’s out of the country doin’ whatever he wants ‘cause he’s just a sergeant,” Claugh said, smiling darkly.
Noa furrowed her eyebrows. “Oh, er… you’re talking about Sergeant Luke Stokkart who you’ve mentioned before, yes? From Roland’s revolution…”
Claugh nodded. “Yeah, he’s a friend from back then. Speakin’ of which, hear me out, okay?”
“Huh? Oh, um, yes…”
“So he’s like, a big deal, right? I mean, he does a lot of spy work and stuff so he’s not super famous or anything, but he’s a big deal… he’s actually more accomplished than I am.”
“And he’s a sergeant?”
“Yeah! That’s seriously messed up, right? I’m stuck here sorting the military out while Luke’s runnin’ around the world on secret missions. That’s super unfair, right?”
Noa was silent for a moment. “Do you enjoy dangerous jobs?”
“Well, I think they suit me more than paperwork does.”
Noa nodded like that was what she’d expected. “Then I must thank Lord Astal.”
“Huh? What for?”
When he turned to look at her, she was smiling kindly, a bit embarrassed. “Because… I don’t want you to go anywhere too dangerous…”
“Hgh… wh, wha…”
They heard a sound from the door while Claugh was still gathering his words.
“…Tch.”
It was an abnormally loud and cynical click of someone’s tongue.
“Aah?” Claugh said and turned to face the entrance where a man wearing Estabul’s military uniform stood.
Claugh instantly realized that he was different from the others who had come here to challenge him. He was in his mid-twenties, about the same age as Claugh. His brown hair was in cornrows and his brown eyes were glaring at Claugh with open malice. He had wrinkles from glaring between his eyebrows, and his mouth was curved with cynicism.
He definitely hated Claugh.
He wasn’t as tall as Claugh, but his posture was perfect and his features weren’t evil or anything. Actually, he looked pretty nice… except for the part where he was glaring with all his might right now, which gave Claugh a pretty bad first impression of him.
“H, hey, d’you hate me that much?” Claugh asked.
“…Tch!!”
He just clicked his tongue again.
“C, Colonel Bayuz…”
“Mm? You know him, Noa?”
Noa nodded. “Everyone in Estabul does. He may not be as famous as you, but he is quite well-known…”
“Princess… To think that you know the name of one such as myself, Bayuz White. I am so moved that I surely will be unable to sleep tonight,” Bayuz said, his expression changing to one of perfect agreeableness. He had a noble-like bearing, and placed a hand to his chest and bowed.
“Y, you’re actin’ l—”
Bayuz clicked his tongue again to interrupt Claugh, his expression turning hateful once more.
Bayuz seriously hated him, didn’t he? Claugh shrugged. “Oh well. I don’t really care if you hate me… so? The fact that you’re here means—”
Bayuz once again completely ignored Claugh, instead addressing Noa. “Princess, I hear that you are promoting soldiers to officers?”
“H-hey, I was talkin—”
“Tch.”
“Don’t just click your fuckin’ tongue at meeeee!! You mocking me? Huh? Just fucking talk—”
Bayuz glared at Claugh with the full force of his hate. “Vulgar pigs should keep their mouths shut!”
“P, pigs? I’m glad you’re finally talkin’ to me, but damn, you’ve got some nerve…”
Claugh was looking more hateful by the second too.
“N-now, now, Your Excellency Marshal Clom,” Noa said. “You too, Colonel White… ah, no, er, Sir White, please solve this peacefully…”
“But Noa!”
“But Princess!”
Claugh and Bayuz both yelled at the same time, then glared at each other.
Noa was at a complete loss for what to do. “I-in any case, Sir Bayuz—”
Bayuz suddenly knelt before her. “Please, just Bayuz. It is necessary for the princess herself to address me politely - it makes me sound far more important than I am.”
Claugh nodded. “He’s right, Noa—”
“Did I say you could talk, you maggot? And stop addressing the princess so familiarly, commoner! It’s filthy!”
“M, maggot… You wanna fight? Fine, bring it on. Come get me! Get back, Noa. I’m gonna send him flyin’.”
“Huh? Um, um, um—”
“Hm. So a maggot like you thinks he can stand up against a human? Fine. I’ll give you a go. Oh, but Princess, please do take the maggot’s complaints to heart and step back a bit. I wouldn’t want you to be hurt.”
“Huh!? U, um, um, um…!!”
Try as she might, Noa couldn’t stop them anymore.
Claugh took a step forward, then rolled up his sleeve to show countless magic circles tattooed on his arm…
Those tattoos were how he became Crimson-Fingered Claugh Klom. His arm would shine, and then his surroundings would become a sea of blood. Those tattoos of his were infamous.
Claugh threw an honest glare at Bayuz and tensed himself for battle. “You ready? This should be pretty fun, seems as you’re famous and all.”
Bayuz just stood as if he had no attention of taking a fighting stance. “Now, now. No need to rush, Claugh.”
“You’re just gonna call me ‘Claugh’ now?”
“Hm? Would you prefer Your Excellency Marshall Maggot?”
“…Nah, you can call me whatever as long as I get to throw you through the wall…”
Claugh continued to prepare himself for battle, but Bayuz held a hand out to gesture for him to stop. “I said to wait, idiot,” he said, then continued calmly. “I will explain why I’m here in simple terms. To put it bluntly, I’m here to become a marshal.”
Claugh’s fighting stance weakened just so. His eyes narrowed. “A marshal, huh?”
“Yes. It’s possible to become a marshal here if we do well enough, isn’t it?”
“If you’re exceptional, yeah. So? Are you trying to tell me that you are?”
Bayuz nodded like that was obvious. “You can tell just by looking at me, can’t you? Or were your eyes eaten out by bugs?”
“…Aaaaaauuughhh, I seriously want to kill you right now…”
The fact that he was right just made it more irritating.
His presence, the way he moved, the movement of his eyes… everything about him passed. If his personality were less shitty, Claugh would’ve enjoyed talking to someone so promising.
“I’ve already assembled quite an army within Estabul, too,” Bayuz continued. “I have promise.”
“…Hmm.”
“But not enough to start a rebellion. Besides, that’s not what I want. I just… no, I only wish to protect the princess,” Bayuz said, finishing much politer as he looked back to Noa and bowed.
“By the way,” Claugh started, “Which one of us are you guys comin’ here to see, anyway? Me or Noa?”
“Don’t be stupid. The only reason anyone would come to see you is to rip you away from her! Your dirty smell will stick to her!”
“Oh, okay…”
So that’s how it was. Well, Noa was more popular than any god in Estabul, so it made sense that her being here was causing a fuss…
“So you’re tellin’ me that you’re promising enough to be a marshal then, yeah?”
Bayuz looked at him like he was stupid. “Why else would I have come here but to see how strong Roland’s marshals are?”
“So you want a contest of skills?” Claugh asked and readied himself for battle again.
But Bayuz shook his head. “No, you should know just by looking at me. I can’t win against you fair and square in a real battle. But if we were to stick with pure martial arts, with no weapons or magic…”
“You’d win, huh?”
Bayuz nodded. “I came to show you that.”
“Hmm. Then you wanna do that?”
“Yeah.”
“You ready?” Claugh asked.
“Come at me.”
And so their match began.
Claugh flew forward, but Bayuz reacted quickly, as expected of someone who spoke so confidently about himself. He jumped back, putting the distance between himself and Claugh exactly where it’d started.
Then he pulled a knife out and threw it at Claugh.
“Hey, you just fucking said we weren’t using weaaapppooooonnnsss!!” Claugh yelled, just barely avoiding the knife.
Bayuz’s attacks didn’t stop there. He wrote the same spell that Namphen had started earlier faster and more skillfully. He was about as good at magic as Claugh was.
He was already chanting. There was no way to defend against his spell now…
But he stopped halfway through his intonation to yell instead. “Stop! Unhand that knife, you cheat!”
“How am I the cheater heeereeeee!!”
And so their battle quickly came to an end…
“So it looks like we’ve tied,” Bayuz said calmly.
“H-how!? You said you were just gonna fight with martial arts, but… well whatever. Words are part of battle too. Or are you tryin’ to say I’m worse for being fooled by it?”
“Uh…”
Apparently that was exactly what he was trying to say.
Claugh sighed and tossed the knife back to Bayuz. “You’re right, though. Deception is a fundamental part of battle, and I can tell that you’re strong just by looking at you. You knew I was stronger so you started scheming. You’re not bad. I acknowledge that.”
“Good, you finally understand. Though I still don’t acknowledge you…”
“Seriously, why do I gotta acknowledge you, anyway…”
Bayuz’s expression turned earnest for a moment. “I told you, didn’t I? I have a considerable army. I represent them as their leader. Claugh Klom. You came here to do something. To reorganize Estabul’s army, correct? So you need to do something about us.”
Claugh smiled and gazed at Bayuz. “What do you want me to do?”
But then a young man in an Estabullian uniform suddenly ran to the entrance, out of breath. “C-Colonel Bayuz! H-he’s back…” He was a commissioned officer according to his medals. “He’s… he’s back…”
He looked like a mess.
Bayuz turned to face him calmly. “Calm down, Pzole,” he said as he observed the officer with sharp eyes.
With that alone, the officer he called Pzole stopped talking.
Just then Claugh understood the meaning of the words on the wall.
Subordination. Exaltation.
Those words described Pzole’s eyes as he looked at Bayuz.
At once Claugh understood that Bayuz was a fraud.
“So he’s back?” Bayuz asked in that cold voice of his. “How many have died?”
Pzole shivered. “Belto Village to the east was annihilated.”
Claugh narrowed his eyes. It sounded like a bandit or something had destroyed a village…
It seemed like Bayuz’s soldiers were stationed around to keep the peace. But if that was the case, then that meant that there was a need for peacekeepers since Roland annexed Estabul, and Bayuz formed an army to take care of it.
Maybe he actually did have enough people for a revolution. But he didn’t start one. Instead he came to Claugh. That was proof that he didn’t want to spill needless blood. He wanted peace, even if it meant becoming part of Roland…
But that didn’t mean he’d just let Estabul fade into nothing. He’d tidy them up so that Estabul was something people could have faith in. Not the kind of fake faith that nobles lorded over people. Real, genuine faith.
They wanted to show Claugh proof that Estabul was something to be proud of. That they too could protect the peace.
That was a big responsibility. Just how would they prove it?
“A whole village, destroyed… sounds like a pretty large-scale gang. Fine. Let’s show ‘em how we do things. Let’s hunt ‘em down.”
Bayuz turned to him with a glare. “You’ll… hunt him?” Then he snorted. “Impossible. But if you do manage to defeat him, we’ll serve you for life.”
“Aahn? That’s pretty serious. Why would you do that over some bandits…? Also, why’re you just saying ‘him,’ anyway? Do you know their leader? Was he in the Estabul army before—”
Bayuz interrupted to address Pzole. “You’re sure it’s him? The same guy as before…?”
“There’s no doubt. Everyone in the village was eaten alive.”
Claugh couldn’t help but shout. “What!?”
“We have eyewitnesses,” Pzole continued. “Th-that pitch black hair… those black clothes… And, and…”
Pzole shivered, his body wrecked with an almost primal fear of the unknown.
“And… his black eyes… have a cursed scarlet symbol in them…”
Claugh finally realized it. Realized what he was so afraid of. What he was fighting.
A cursed scarlet symbol inside their eyes, said to bestow calamity upon all who saw. That was a mark of their curse, proof that they were feared and loathed by all. Proof that they were Alpha Stigma bearers.
But this didn’t sound like a normal Alpha Stigma bearer. A normal Alpha Stigma bearer wouldn’t be easy to defeat, but an army could deal with them.
Claugh had killed a berserk Alpha Stigma bearer before. It wasn’t the same as what Bayuz was afraid of. Their fear was more like… something Claugh remembered from a long time ago, back when he’d first joined Roland’s military.
Back then he saw an Alpha Stigma bearer who wasn’t a normal one at all. He couldn’t forget that horrible scarlet in his eyes even now…
He’d laughed madly as if he was mocking all of humanity, and in that moment, annihilated Claugh’s whole platoon. He’d almost died then, too. He’d crawled along the ground, desperately trying to escape, crawling through the blood of his allies and his tears.
He’d laughed and laughed.
He didn’t try to kill Claugh.
He just laughed and laughed.
Claugh cried and tried to escape, all while that man laughed at him.
“Ahh… those delicate arms of yours look so tasty,” he’d said.
And then Claugh’s right arm vanished. No… perhaps it was more precise to say that it was ripped off and eaten at the joint, leaving a mess of tendons. He tried to move it and couldn’t. All he could do was scream. From pain. From fear.
And that guy just laughed. Like he was happy.
That was a far off memory.
But Claugh’s arm…
He brushed his fingers against the place his tattooed right arm had been eaten off before.
“This is the worst possible situation,” Bayuz said. “He’s not just any Alpha Stigma bearer. He’s already awoken. You think you can beat him?”
Claugh smiled. “So that crazy monster’s my enemy, huh…”
