Episode 14

The crackling sparks lit the dark night red. By the time the sun had fully set and the creatures of the mountain forest had grown quiet, they had made camp.

What separated them as they sat on the ground was the campfire that continued to burn. The reason they had positioned themselves on opposite sides of the fire was likely because they remained wary of one another. Even through words and actions, no trust had been born, and a deep gulf had formed between them.

“My apologies, Your Highness. I have nothing better than this to offer.”

“That is not true at all. Thank you very much. …Only—”

Under normal circumstances, they should already have arrived in Samaris, but the attack had thrown their schedule badly off course. They also had to assume the existence of new enemies and proceed with caution.

“Honestly… how long are you lot going to keep this up? Her Highness said it was fine, did she not?”

Rosetta and the others still did not lower their guard. The reason Zeke was here was because Arnica had requested that he accompany them. As for the man himself, he sat there with his arms folded and eyes closed. His attitude of acting as though they were beneath his notice only irritated Rosetta and the others all the more.

“…Commander, are you in your right mind?”

“I am in my right mind. I haven’t had a drop to drink. Gahaha!”

Rosetta shot a cold look at Baccus’s booming laughter. It was their usual kind of exchange, but there was an irregular presence in this place.

“I’m grateful that you helped us. But—”

“The timing feels a little too perfect. If all of this was arranged in advance, then maybe this outcome was only natural.”

A convenient rescue arriving on a remote mountain road. That alone felt strange enough, but what Zeke had told them had been even more outrageous.

“The slaughter of all the people of Samaris… even if that were true, where exactly did you get that information?”

“And I don’t understand this thing about turning Her Highness into a ‘key,’ either. Maybe you’re just saying complicated things to confuse us.”

The idea of slaughtering the residents of an entire town was hard to believe, but Osten had in fact suffered catastrophic damage. If this information had come to them through ordinary channels, things might have been different, but the source this time was Zeke himself. Before they could even judge the credibility of the information, they could not trust Zeke at all.

“…”

Even as Rosetta and the others looked at him with suspicion, Zeke showed no reaction. He had not even touched the hastily prepared soup.

“I cannot tell you everything, as it concerns matters of the utmost secrecy within the royal house. However, even so, what Zeke is saying can be trusted. Without his help, saving Samaris would be difficult.”

Even if they were to inform the kingdom now of the danger threatening Samaris, how long would it take for the knight order to reach this place? And in the first place, was the current knight order even capable of dealing with a situation that placed an entire town in danger?

“Y-Your Highness. The knight order is certainly in a difficult position, but he’s the one who caused it… If all of this was calculated in advance, then it would explain everything…”

Veil glanced repeatedly at Zeke as he spoke timidly. His fear showed plainly. Even from the Royal Guard Corps’ point of view, Zeke was a person of extreme concern. It was the natural reaction of people who knew what he had done and what he was suspected of.

“…You truly are useless, every last one of you.”

Zeke finally spoke with a long sigh.

“I never told you to trust me. From my perspective, whether the Third Princess disappears or Samaris is destroyed is irrelevant. It has nothing to do with me.”

Zeke spoke flatly, as if he had no interest at all.

“What you do is for you to decide. Resist if you want, or let them die. Either way is your freedom.”

The black shadow that had attacked them on the road. The one who had defeated that being—which had resembled Commander Baccus in both form and strength—was Zeke, and it was also Zeke who was believed to possess some kind of information. On the other hand, the Royal Guard Corps had almost no useful information at all, while their charge, Arnica, now stood in danger. No matter how one looked at it, they ought to request Zeke’s cooperation, and they needed to speak with him.

“Now, now, settle down. …Zeke, was it? Would you mind speaking with me a little?”

Zeke eyed Baccus suspiciously as the man suddenly cut into the conversation. Rosetta and the others too seemed wary, as if expecting him to start saying something strange again.

“Nothing much, just a story about an old friend of mine. A fool who lived only for the sword, and knew next to nothing besides it.”

The crackling sparks vanished into the night sky. Baccus stared into the campfire with distant eyes.

“I crossed swords with him many times. And every single time, he beat me. …In the end, he passed on without my ever defeating him even once.”

“…Baccus. That old friend of yours… could it be—”

He shifted his gaze from the campfire to Zeke.

His face, lined with deep wrinkles, bore several scars. Though his appearance showed his age, his eyes still shone with strength.

“Zeke. …Tell me—how was my old friend… Masfelt… at the end?”

“…What I saw was a man collapsed on the ground. His throat had been crushed, and one arm had been cut off. He was literally on the verge of death.”

On hearing Zeke’s words, Baccus clenched his fist so tightly that blood began to run from his palm.

“I knew he had an incurable illness. But… in the end, there was nothing I could do.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. There was nothing you could have done anyway. …He was already terminal with mana sclerosis. In truth, the Sword Saint had been fighting in a state where he should not even have been able to move his body. The man who never let go of his sword until the very end—was a true swordsman.”

“!? …Thank you. For seeing my best friend off.”

Baccus lowered his head. Tears glimmered in his eyes.

“Hmph. As much as it irritates me, the current me still could not reach the Sword Saint at his peak. It’s infuriating beyond words.”

“Gahaha! How modest. That’s a talent that sword idiot never had.”

Baccus laughed loudly. The tears were gone, and his hearty laughter echoed into the night before fading away.

“Wait a second. Then that makes it sound as though someone else killed the Sword Saint…”

Baccus’s relationship with the Sword Saint was news to them, and shocking in itself, but an even more important matter had now surfaced.

“Rosetta. The blade he carries was bestowed upon him directly by the king. It is the emblem of the Sword Saint, a symbol of the age.”

The masterwork blade was something anyone could recognize at a glance. As Arnica said, it bore the royal crest. Anyone who walked the path of the sword would know it as the mark of the Sword Saint.

“If he had killed the Sword Saint out of a desire for fame, there would be no reason for him to run. And if he meant to flee, then carrying that blade—which could serve as decisive evidence—would also make no sense. Which means…”

Arnica flatly declared that Zeke was innocent. Since she knew at least a little of the kind of person he was, she held the strange confidence that, if he were going to do such a thing, he would have carried it out much more efficiently.

“It is said that a weapon carries the soul of its owner. That blade does not seem to reject Zeke. Which means he is the one to whom that man entrusted his will.”

Zeke spat that he had no interest in the occult. Baccus responded by saying such things could not be mocked so easily, then began speaking from experience.

“…I don’t understand. Then why… don’t you speak up for yourself?”

“Are you an idiot? Go around telling random people that I’m not the culprit? And who would believe that? Me, a Lagias?”

He was absolutely right.

When they first heard he was wanted, the first thought that crossed their minds had been, Figures. They had also heard reports of Zeke’s good deeds, but those deeds had never connected in their minds with Lagias. Lagias was still Lagias. They had simply swallowed the knight order’s information whole.

“Commander, did you know all along?”

“There was no malice coming from him, you see.”

Rosetta fell silent, while Rachel cast a doubtful look at Baccus. Veil only wore a troubled expression.

“Let’s return to the main point. The most important question is this—who is the culprit?”

The air changed.

The one who had killed Masfelt, the strongest swordsman in the nation. If there truly were another culprit behind the incident that had shaken the entire country, the matter would take a drastic turn. Everyone’s eyes turned toward Zeke, but—

“Don’t. You’ll be erased.”

““““!?””””

An overwhelming pressure came from Zeke. It carried the clear will: do not pry any farther into this.

“This is not your place to step into. …Let the Sword Saint’s grandson clean up his mess… He may be defective, but still.”

“!? I see. …So it’s El-boy. …That utter fool.”

Something must have clicked for Baccus, because he fell silent. He lowered his gaze and sank into thought.

“Zeke, let me say it again. I want you to lend us your hand.”

“Hah. Don’t hold me back. You lot are to become my hands and feet. Think only of that.”

When the sun rose, the Royal Guard Corps and Zeke (Hiroto) resumed their journey toward Samaris. They had camped out the previous night, but physically he did not feel particularly fatigued.

Normally, they would probably have taken turns keeping watch while the rest rested, but naturally, no one thought to ask Zeke. He understood that they were on guard against him, but at this point, the blatantness of it almost felt refreshing. Camp duty, tending the fire, keeping watch—Hiroto had actually been looking forward to those things a little, so he was inwardly disappointed.

Ahead of him were the carriage and the Royal Guard Corps. The kingdom’s elite, gathered to protect Princess Arnica. They knew nothing, and would go to the tunnel opening ceremony in Samaris without understanding anything, only to lose their lives there. —At least, that was how it had gone in the original story.

Zeke, gifted with the factor of a spirit (god). An arrogant and merciless figure. Already possessing high potential in both sword and magic, he became even more vicious after gaining cheat-like power.

In the original Samaris arc, Zeke attacked the opening ceremony and captured Arnica. The rest of the townspeople were erased along with the town itself. Pariaach had guided things skillfully, but Zeke himself had his own objective and had chosen to go along with their scheme.

(Now that I think about it, this really is insane. A mass murderer and his victims are traveling together.)

Up to now, Hiroto had acted in many ways with the goal of breaking free from the scenario. He had not obtained the results he wanted, but he recognized that he had managed to change at least some parts of the future. The fact that people who should have died were still alive now was important to him.

Everyone involved in this matter had died in the original story. Even Arnica, the Third Princess, had been used as a spare “key” and lost her life. If possible, he wanted to prevent that. He refused to watch someone die right in front of him. If he could not gain their cooperation, that was fine too. He understood from the start that he was not trusted. For the sake of his own peace of mind, he would simply save them on his own.

As Zeke (Hiroto) reviewed the original flow of events once more for the sake of his objective, one of the Royal Guards ahead of him slowed her pace and gradually approached. She appeared to be slightly older than Zeke. For a woman, she was tall, and the way her pale blond hair fluttered carried a distinctly otherworldly feel.

(…Who was this again?)

He knew she was one of the Royal Guards in Samaris, but beyond that, he had no particular information. He thought her name had come up in their conversations, but he had not remembered it. In the first place, no one would normally think to build friendly relations with people who had hated them that much.

He was busy justifying himself with the vague conviction that none of this was his fault when the Royal Guard in question spoke to him.

“…Do you have a moment?”

“Get lost. Don’t approach me so casually.”

“…”

That ended the conversation. Even Hiroto was put off by how foul-mouthed that had been. What Hiroto himself had meant was that he was busy thinking and wanted her to leave it for later, but reality was cruel. No matter how much stronger he became, he still had not managed to correct that awful mouth of his. Lately, he had thought his tone had softened ever so slightly, but apparently that had been his imagination.

“…Tell me, do you have any friends? If there’s someone you can let your guard down around, your heart grows lighter, you know.”

“If you want to preach religion, go peddle it elsewhere. You’re disgusting.”

“…”

At this point, it almost became refreshing.

—A friend. Had Zeke ever had such a person? He was a villain character who had always acted alone. In the story, he died after being defeated by the protagonists, with no one there to see him off. In the game, that had been certain from the start. But what had the man himself thought about it?

(Friends, huh… I wonder how they’re all doing?)

Hiroto had not had many, but he did have people he could call friends. He also had family, starting with his father and mother, and had lived a peaceful everyday life. Now he was living a life alongside death. One never really knew what life would bring.

(What did they think… when they decided to help Zeke?)

Ordinarily, no one helped a person hated across the entire nation and wanted by the authorities. Even if they said they owed him something, from Hiroto’s perspective he had never intended it that way; things had only turned out that way as a result. Could someone really want to help another person so badly they would stake their life on it? …Would a day come when he could think that way too?

—What had that blond knight thought, when she became a knight?

“…I’m sorry. I judged you one-sidedly without trying to understand you. I just wanted to apologize.”

“Stop with the worthless hypocrisy. You stink.”

“!? W-Who are you calling smelly!? I take proper care of myself even when camping! Wait, what are you making me say!?”

A sharp slap struck his back. Cherlan and the others walking ahead turned around wide-eyed at the commotion.

“Hm? Ah, youth is nice indeed. Rosetta is quick with her hands.”

“Wh-!?”

The Royal Guard in question, face flushed red, stomped off toward Baccus. Without the slightest hesitation even before the commander at the top of her organization, she began rattling off something at him.

(What is with that woman? The Royal Guard Corps is full of dangerous people.)

The first time he had met the Royal Guards had been more than two years ago. He still remembered how shocked he had been to encounter such eccentrics who had never appeared in the original story. Would he keep having meetings like this from now on? …He would rather not, if possible.

(It may not go conveniently, but… I’ve got no choice but to do it.)