Chapter 157

Chapter 157

Having prepared myself to be found suspicious, I’d brought Deb back alive. If they tried to kill him in the Temple, I was absolutely ready to stop them. I even had several excuses lined up to explain my behavior.

However, it seemed there wasn’t any need for it.

Maybe they’d decided just to let it slide, thinking I did it out of attachment. Thanks to that, they didn’t even question me, much less suspect me.

The kimchi dumpling and company handled the matter of whether he should be killed, so I didn’t need to intervene. That was quite fortunate.

Of course, just in case, I pretended to look at Deb with a conflicted gaze, gripping my arm tightly and pretending to be deeply troubled by this.

“To track down the Demon, it’s essential that that troublemaker recovers first. However, we shouldn’t be wasting time doing nothing. So, I invited the young lord to this place.”

Meanwhile, the Inquisitor, who’d escaped the surveillance room, started talking. It was good that I’d decided to hide on the roof of our accommodation without anyone noticing. I almost missed all of their conversation.

Of course, the most delightful part I’d eavesdropped on was what the two dumplings had been talking about just now.

As I thought, the Inquisitor really was the best dumpling, the best Hero. I’d been pretty worried about how I could restore the meat dumpling’s disastrously low self-esteem.

“I also plan on discussing the Demon subjugation, but before that, I wanted to ask you something. Young Lord, what exactly happened?”

Anyway, I should focus on this now. I waited for them to speak, positioning myself at an angle where I could see their faces.

“...Since you already found out, there’s no point in hiding this any longer.”

The person who, despite his appearance, exemplified a profound sorrow beyond simple misery finally spoke up.

“The being who fought the Hero’s companions was the Skyflow Tiger.”

“Wait... the Skyflow Tiger...!”

“It seems you understood right away, Madam Archmage. Yes, they’re exactly who you think they are. The former ruler of the western lands who vanished a few centuries ago.”

“But why would such a being...”

At the Archmage’s question, the young lord’s expression momentarily became a bit strange. He seemed fairly despondent, or put differently, as if he’d been struck by a realization.

“I once unwittingly saved a cat.”

“A cat?”

“It was shivering in the rain, so I gave it some food out of sympathy... It turned out that cat was actually the Skyflow Tiger.”

“...What a strange coincidence.”

“Yes. But it seems this coincidental meeting left a strong impression on the Skyflow Tiger. Since then, they’ve been... a bit obsessed with me, claiming I belong to them...”

The young lord took a deep breath at that moment. The others reacted similarly.

The obsessive attention of a Primordial Beast, of all things. And to make matters worse, he already had a fiancée.

The young lord’s fate was thoroughly twisted.

“So, the reason why you couldn’t talk to us properly the other day...?”

“Huh? Ah, do you mean the day you brought the letter?”

“That’s right.”

The young lord looked rather troubled by that question.

“That wasn’t me. It was the Skyflow Tiger pretending to be me.”

No wonder he looked so troubled.

“...That’s surprising. I didn’t even notice anything was amiss.”

“Haha...”

I could finally make sense of the young lord’s behavior that day.

He hadn’t seemed happy to receive the letter from his beloved because it wasn’t really him.

Now, I could fully understand why he’d seemed so indifferent, almost displeased by it.

How could they be happy about receiving a letter from the official lover of the person they were obsessed with?

And his reason for not talking much about the cat that day was because the ‘cat’ was actually him at the time.

“Then, what about the letter...?”

“Unfortunately, I never got to read it. The Skyflow Tiger burned it.”

Ah, so that’s also why he’d mentioned a fishy scent. I wasn’t entirely sure why the Skyflow Tiger thought I smelled fishy—maybe because of the Sea Dragon’s pearl?—but they’d commented on it in both their true form and when disguised as the young lord.

Thinking back on it, a passerby also mentioned a fishy smell, so they may have been the Skyflow Tiger in disguise, too.

“Hmmm. This might be a bit presumptuous, but is it possible that the recent increase in beasts in Camborough...”

“...That was the Skyflow Tiger’s doing, as well. I haven’t known them for long, but... who else could’ve caused such a disaster?”

Like that, the cause for this beast incident was revealed. I’d naturally assumed it to be the work of Demons, but the true culprit turned out to be something entirely unexpected: a mythical being who, driven mad by love, attacked a whole city.

I’d kept the possibility in mind, but it seemed that the Demon messing with Deb and this incident were really unrelated.

Did that mean this situation was any less weighty or grave? Absolutely not.

Well, I didn’t know about anything else, but there’d already been victims, hadn’t there? And even fatalities? Whether they were a Demon or a Primordial Beast, they deserved to be struck down by the hammer of justice. Regardless of species, there was no reason to forgive someone who’d arbitrarily killed people.

But wasn’t the Skyflow Tiger helping this place? That didn't seem to be the case, considering they’d ‘vanished a long time ago’.

So, wasn’t it only fair that they finally paid the appropriate price?

“However... you don’t need to worry about this anymore. I won’t neglect my duties anymore.”

“What do you mean by duties?”

“The root of this problem is my engagement with the young lady of Camborough. The Skyflow Tiger is displeased with this engagement and decided to interfere. If I were to end my engagement with the young lady of Camborough, wouldn’t that solve the problem?”

“What?!”

However, this person apparently had a different opinion. Instead of discussing punishment for the being, he was just discussing solutions.

“But...”

“I am the young lord of Ednium, its next lord. My granted privileges come with the responsibility of ensuring the safety and better future of the city’s people.”

“...”

“I have no intention of neglecting the duties that come with my privileges. That is the burden of this position. Quite honestly, having already wasted a week just because I didn’t want to break up with Mia, I don’t think I can afford to delay this any longer. Camborough has already suffered tremendous damages...”

The young lord met the gaze of the person who seemed the most upset, the Inquisitor. “I’m fine.” His smile seemed rather relieved.

“...I-I don’t think this is the right choice. What crime did the lady of Camborough and its residents commit to deserve this?”

“You’re right. They’ve done nothing wrong. There’s no reason for them to be struck with such calamity. However, natural disasters don’t need a reason to occur.”

“The Skyflow Tiger isn’t a natural disaster.”

“No, they are no different from one in that they cannot be held accountable.”

* * *

Mia, the young lady of Camborough, remained silent for a long time after receiving that urgent telegram.

And after the wizard had finished their report and left, she collapsed to the floor of her office. Her longtime friend and aide, Johanna, glanced at her.

“Are you alright?”

“They said that they uncovered what’s causing these beasts to attack and that the attacks would soon cease, so I should say yes... but I somehow can’t bring myself to do so.”

“Mia.”

“Hah, so everything will be resolved if I just break up with him? Then it’ll be over? Are you kidding me? People died! Twenty-five people died!”

Mia, still sitting, placed her hand on the sofa. Her nails, deformed from clutching a pen between her fingers for more than eight hours a day, dug into the fabric, seeming as if they were about to tear into it.

“Not only must I watch the person I love be taken from me, but my people, the residents of my city, have died, and we can't even punish the one responsible! How am I supposed to simply let this go?!”

Wrong. It didn’t just seem like it; her nails were actually tearing through the thick fabric.

“Y-You’re going to hurt your hand.”

“Just... just how did this happen?”

“Mia, the last time you did this, you couldn’t use your hand for ages. Let’s just talk about this.”

“How...!!”

Thanks to Johanna’s coaxing, she barely let go of the sofa. Mia, who’d collapsed to the floor, was reluctantly helped up and moved to a chair in the office.

“How can this world be like this?”

Even so, she hadn’t come back to her senses yet. Mia placed the back of her hand against her eyes.

Honestly, she was feeling disillusioned right now. She thought she’d held on pretty well for so long, but in just an instant, everything simply felt meaningless.

“I endured it when some woman strutted in out of nowhere and took over the household after my mother passed away. I endured it when my position was threatened by that illegitimate child my father favored, and I was forced to clean up after that damn bastard constantly. But after all that, is this my reward? A sudden disaster causing me to lose the person I love? Is that really how it’s supposed to be?”

“Mia...”

“Sigh, right. It’s wrong to call him illegitimate. That damn bastard is my stepmother’s son, after all. Despite having him while cheating on my mother before she passed, my father claims the child only inherited my stepmother’s blood.”

As she spoke, her anger resurged, and she slammed her fist onto the desk. Bang! The sound reverberated loudly through the office.

“But even so, this isn’t right. How have I lived through all this, and how much did I endure? I finally secured my position and just wanted to live happily with the person I love. But now I’m told I can’t do that because of some damn beast eyeing my man? And on top of that, residents of this city have died because of that thing, and I’m just supposed to shut up and move on? How does that make sense?”

“It’s not just some beast, it’s the Skyflow Tiger...”

“A beast is still a beast, no matter whether some idiots worship it! If it really wanted to be treated like a god, it shouldn’t have left to begin with, or it should have stayed gone forever for all I care!”

Meanwhile, Johanna, knowing her lady and friend’s temperament all too well, trembled as she listened to Mia’s outburst.

“When I was in so much pain that I wanted to die, it didn’t show its face, but now, how dare it. How dare it...”

However, more than anything, she just felt sorry for her lady.

She’d seen how much Mia had to endure between her extremely arrogant younger brother, who was secretly an illegitimate child, and her new stepmother, who just took over everything after her mother passed away, not caring about anyone.

The only reason Mia endured all that pain was because of the will her mother had left, asking her to take care of the city.

Because of that one will, she’d tolerated her biased father, her controlling stepmother, and her prideful younger brother, and she was eventually praised by everyone as the city’s young lady. She never even considered her own happiness, all to fulfill that one wish.

And it was precisely because of this that she was so grateful to the young lord of Ednium, who’d managed to make Mia truly happy...

“Johanna.”

“Yes.”

“What infuriates me even more is that there’s absolutely no way to resist. I want to kill that beast so badly, but it’s just too powerful...”

“...Mia.”

“Ah, and it’s not just its strength. Many people will argue that it would be a lot better to keep that damn beast alive and receive its favor for as long as possible than to harm and kill it. Of course, they would think like that. After all, none of their family members got killed, so it’s clearly more beneficial to them.”

“...”

“...But do you know what the funniest thing is? The moment I realized there was no way to get rid of or punish that thing, the thought actually crossed my mind to just give it all up and run away with Leon.”

“...! You...!”

“Isn’t that just positively disgusting? How could I even think something like that? Setting aside whether successfully escaping is even possible, who would take care of those put in harm's way by my absence? If I left, this city would fall into the hands of that bitch’s bastard. What would be the consequences of that? And what of the aftermath of my escape, with the city’s people suffering from that beast’s wrath?”

“...Mia, that’s just...”

“It’s irresponsible. I know. I know that much, as well... But at the same time, I can’t help but think that way. Damn it. Why did my mother leave me such a will? I’ve never once complained about it before, but right now, it just feels so incredibly unfair. I know that the rights we enjoy come with a lot of sacrifice. I know that we can’t shirk our responsibilities. But still, I... I...”

Johanna could only hold her friend tightly and watch as she finally broke down in tears.

Why was it that someone as capable as her, who’d handled her position so admirably, never received any reward for it? They, who’d lived so much better lives because she was the young lady of this city, could never truly repay her.

* * *

“Is it here?”

After a day, Deb had regained some of his strength. He hadn’t fully recovered, but he no longer felt like he was on the brink of death or needed to be carried around on someone’s back.

Moreover, a party to capture the Demon—though, given its size, it would be more fitting to call it a raid party—had been formed.

With about thirty soldiers given to us by the young lord and forty capable priests—the wizards would have taken too long to get here, so we decided against bringing them along—they were ready enough to head out as soon as I joined them.

By this point, wasting any more time would be extremely out of character, so I reluctantly set aside my reservations and thoughts of joining up later and showed myself to them.

Naturally, the party set off as soon as I returned.

“Yes.”

“...I can feel the Demonic Energy. I think I can track it now.”

And then, the moment we reached the deeper parts of the forest after travelling for half a day.

“Wait, the Demonic Energy is getting closer—!”

“Hey, isn’t it actually coming here?”

> [Hah, mere mortals dare to track me down?]

The Demon revealed itself. It looked exactly like the guy who’d given me the veil and whom Deb had described in his earlier testimony.

That meant Deb wasn’t a traitor, after all.

> [No matter how you managed to find me—]

“You’re dead, Demon.”

And since this bastard definitely did something awful to our meat dumpling, I wasn’t going to let it off easy.

‘Kill it.’

Get ready, you bastard. You’re dead now.