Chapter 30

After Marks and Kengo disappeared into the alley, Kururu climbed up onto the roof of a building to check on Nodon and the others’ movements.

“They’re marching around with fires lit like they want everyone to see them.”

“That’s because they need the townspeople to know they’re the righteous ones.”

“Well, thanks to that, it looks like we can slip around them. You didn’t betray us too, did you?”

Kururu said that with a laugh to the boy Marks had left behind as our guide.

Kururu was teasingly pinching the boy’s puffed-up cheek, so they seemed to know each other fairly well.

“And those people probably never imagined we’d run to the Church either.”

Iiria was wagging her tail with an oddly excited expression.

Being dog-like, Iiria apparently found this chase-like situation thrilling.

“Even so, you really came up with something strange.”

Iiria murmured that, then narrowed her eyes and reached a hand toward Kururu’s hair.

“I never would have thought of it at all. But you’re right. In war, it’s common to wear something belonging to someone important to you.”

“It was pure chance for me too.”

As someone who had come from another world, all kinds of things were novel enough to stay in my memory.

The cultural differences surrounding beastfolk in particular had stayed with me, and I had only been able to understand the complexity of their position because I had Iiria and Kururu by my side.

More than anything, the reason we were able to have any ties with the beastfolk at all was because Kengo had that exceptional kind of social ability.

“It feels like the whole world has changed somehow.”

Kururu, who had been letting Iiria play with her hair without resisting, though clearly unable to settle down, said that.

“You did just come back from the mine. So you really are going to change the world, right?”

Releasing Kururu’s hair, Iiria looked at me and smiled.

“Now then, let’s go too.”

To protect our respective positions.

Or perhaps to change the world.

Just as when we found a way to use magic stones that no one had ever imagined, we were going to overturn this situation too.

Iiria and Kururu had the keen noses of beastfolk, and the boy guiding us knew not only the roads but also people’s yards and back entrances, leading us along like a stray cat.

Nodon’s people had, of course, hired roughnecks other than the ones marching openly to search the alleys in the same way, but we had the upper hand.

We slipped through the encirclement safely, passed behind the enemy force, and met up without trouble with Marks, Kengo, and the others.

“I can’t believe my work would actually come in handy.”

Torun, who had come rushing over with Marks despite his leg not yet being fully healed, was smiling uncertainly while moving his hands at incredible speed.

Beside him, the beastfolk children who had supplied materials for Torun were standing with shining eyes, clinging all over Kururu, who was the magician Dorasutel.

Apparently Dodol and the others had also grasped what was going on and had us in their sights.

When they saw us flee into the Church, would they take it as betrayal, or not?

Torun’s hands were working almost like magic on Kururu’s hair.

When he finished in no time at all, it looked like nothing more than a stylish ornament.

“I guess I can never take this off again.”

Touching her own hair with her hand, Kururu smiled with a face that looked happy, embarrassed, and a little troubled all at once.

“It suits you.”

I said that because I truly thought so, but Kururu narrowed her eyes, let out a small growl, and turned away.

“Alright, let’s go make those idiots look stupid!”

At Marks’s words, we stepped out from the alley where we had been hiding and onto the main street. The boy, the beastfolk children, and Torun stayed behind in the shadows to see us off as they headed somewhere safe.

The instant we came out onto the main road, one of Nodon’s men stationed around town made a face of surprise and ran off to report it.

We ignored it completely and kept walking toward the center of town.

There was a square there, one used for town festivals and the like. Nodon’s private residence was there, as was the lord’s mansion where Iiria and the others lived, and there was one more building there that drew the eye.

Dodol and the others, who were probably watching us from somewhere, must have narrowed our destination down to two places.

Either we would enter our own mansion to hole up, or else we would go on the offensive and smash open the doors of Nodon’s mansion.

But instead, we pounded on the door of the third building: the Church.

“Father! Father!”

Iiria raised her voice loudly, speaking in a theatrical tone.

“There are those who seek to do us wrong! In God’s holy name, please lend us your strength!”

The instant after that, I felt as though ice had been pressed to the back of my neck, and all my hair stood on end.

Even Iiria’s tail fur, though she kept a straight face, had bristled, and Kururu too had clearly stiffened. Only thick-skinned Kengo was standing there with a foolish “?” on his face, but this had to be the killing intent of Dodol and the others.

They had taken this as betrayal.

But while the sound came from within as the great bar on the Church doors was lifted, Kururu turned around and pulled back her hood.

There, tied into her abundant hair, were tribal ornaments.

They were hair ornaments made from the hair of beastfolk children.

“Lord Iiria?”

Standing beyond the great doors was a stern-faced elderly priest, along with Clover, who had passionately preached the wonders of God when we had gone to read the holy text.

“It seems the town is in quite an uproar.”

There was an obvious air of, I do not want to get involved in the town’s troublesome disputes.

“Yes, and that is exactly why we have come to seek Father’s and God’s blessing.”

Iiria usually must have played the part of a decorative lord who bowed and scraped before everyone except Kururu, enduring any insult.

But now, the way she bent at the waist and lowered her head before the priest held unmistakable resolve.

The priest must have sensed that too, because he seemed to falter slightly, his pointed Adam’s apple bobbing.

“Y-you are saying that you have come here for help?”

“Yes, Father. And we also have something to report.”

“Re-report?”

The priest was plainly thrown by Iiria’s words because Kururu, at Iiria’s introduction, had knelt down.

“My attendant Kururu has awakened through God’s miracle.”

To win the Church to our side, and also avoid becoming enemies with Dodol.

To make the impossible possible, we had no choice but to use Kururu’s ambiguous and delicate position to the fullest.

“W-what…?”

The priest, stunned, recognized that the face under the disguise was Kururu’s, and only looked more confused.

“A miracle of God…? More to the point, you are of beast—”

Kururu, who had had her head bowed, lifted her face.

“My heart overflows with gratitude that God has forgiven the blood that flows in my body.”

Despising her own bloodline and fawning over humans seemed like the sort of thing Kururu would hate more than anything.

And yet when she said it, Kururu’s face was truly radiant with joy.

That delighted face was not an act.

Because this was the perfect chance to make a fool of the priest.

“Please look, Father.”

With that, Kururu placed a fragment of magic stone in her hand and clenched it before the priest’s eyes. At once smoke rose from it, black and purple at the same time.

If that was not a trick, then Kururu had indeed been granted a miracle of God.

“Oh!? C-could it be, what in the…!”

The priest trembled violently, then suddenly seemed to come to himself.

“Then could it be… Iiria… the magician who appeared at your mansion was—”

“Yes, it is Kururu here.”

In that instant, all sorts of problems must have flashed through the priest’s mind.

Not only what it meant for a girl with beastfolk blood to be able to use magic, but also that she had displayed magic powerful enough to blow up a mine. And on top of that, he had openly insulted and scorned both that girl and her mistress time and again.

And standing before him now was a magician worth an army.

The priest’s face stiffened because he had realized that Kururu’s smile was a smile whose nature he could not grasp.

He turned pale, shrinking back.

There was no way he could fail to think she had come for revenge.

If Kururu wanted to, she could reduce the whole Church to cinders in an instant.

“However, Father, we do not wish for Kururu being a magician to become public.”

Then Iiria spoke in a pleading tone. The priest, long accustomed to being relied upon, prayed to, and begged for mercy, apparently regained some of his composure at last.

His eyes were still blinking frantically, but the way he had drawn back had eased a good deal.

“The people of the town would suspect she is some evil magician. And the beastfolk too might harbor dangerous intentions. So Kururu must remain, at least outwardly, the wandering magician Dorasutel. That is what we wish for.”

“…”

He looked every bit the solemn elderly priest, but I knew very well that he was one of the regular customers at Nodon’s company, buying wine and meat. This priest was the kind of man who, in a remote place like this, behaved as a small king, though not to the same extent as Nodon.

And precisely because of that, I had expected this bargain to work.

Kururu now was like a political hand grenade with the safety pin pulled out.

That being so, I had predicted that the practical priest, who loved wine and meat, would certainly say exactly this.

“I-indeed… many hardships surely await you in the future. Y-yes, but be at ease!”

As the blood returned to his head, the priest quickly understood exactly what he needed to do.

“Your suffering is our suffering. All who kneel before God are equally children of the Church!”

The priest must have weighed which side he ought to support, Nodon’s faction or Iiria’s faction.

And the scale had tipped in an instant.

“You have my gratitude, Father.”

Kururu’s smile was genuine, and the priest seemed to understand that, at least for now, there was no murderous intent in it.

But braided thoroughly into Kururu’s hair as she bowed respectfully was the hair of beastfolk children. It was what Torun had clipped from the children and woven in at astonishing speed.

Any beastfolk who saw it should understand its true meaning.

After all, Kururu was entering the Church carrying the strong scent of the beastfolk with her. It was clearly not the figure of someone collared, trained, and made to bow her head.

No matter how one looked at it, it was the figure of a wicked cat slipping into the den of foolish humans who lacked keen noses.

And the priest, moreover, was completely terrified of Iiria and Kururu.

That priest helped Kururu to her feet and invited her, and the rest of us, into the Church as the great magician Dorasutel. As he did so, Kururu carefully stroked her own hair and glanced back over her shoulder.

The smile was directed somewhere into the darkness beyond the square.

A few moments later, the prickling sensation of hostile eyes suddenly vanished.

As though replacing it, many torches and many human silhouettes appeared from the road leading into the square.

The priest noticed it at once and raised his voice loudly.

“Oh, this is the day when God’s grace has been bestowed upon Jirenu Territory! O God! Deliver just judgment upon those who commit injustice and throw the town into chaos!”

At the priest’s voice and gestures, the guards who had been watching from within the Church came out all at once. In return, the priest ushered us into the Church, while the wall of spears faced the crowd flooding into the square.

In numbers, of course, the Church side was at a disadvantage, but if anyone fought the Church, every person present on the spot would sooner or later be burned at the stake for heresy.

That was enough to halt the steps of many of the rioters, but there was one man in the crowd who cared nothing for authority.

He had no way out left, and had already placed every last wager on the table.

So he had surely meant to step toward the Church, level his club at it, and denounce the Church without any thought for the consequences.

That the magician standing at the priest’s side was Kururu, with beastfolk blood.

And the priest was no political fool who would allow Nodon to say such a thing.

“You who shatter the stillness of night! Learn the sin of raising weapons against God’s house! Or else—”

With that, the priest gently pushed Kururu, who had pulled her hood low again, one step forward.

“Do you intend to stir up trouble with Lord Dorasutel, the magician sent by God?”

At the name Dorasutel, the crowd stirred. Everyone knew the rumors of the wandering magician.

Against such a magician, the swords and clubs in their hands would mean absolutely nothing.

But one person in the square had opened his eyes wide for an entirely different reason.

Because with the priest having declared Kururu to be Dorasutel, it had become perfectly clear that the priest and Iiria had joined hands. It was a message that the Church would act on behalf of Iiria and her side.

Nodon shoved his way through the crowd and, upon reaching the front line, stood there in shock.

Across the hedge of spears, he stared at the priest without a word.

“God may yet show mercy to any man.”

At the priest’s meaningful words, Nodon’s knees gave way, and he collapsed to the ground.

The priest had meant that even now, they might still consider what was to be done with him afterward.

The match was decided.

Watching the exchange from deeper inside the Church, I let out a sigh of relief, then, like Nodon, dropped to my knees, my strength gone from my waist, and before Iiria’s outstretched hand could catch me, I toppled backward.