Episode 40

Right after he arrived in Ignote, Zeke was taken away by soldiers. He was currently being interrogated in a military facility.

“Name: Zeke Lagias. Age: fifteen, of noble birth, and…”

“Are you stupid? How many times do I have to say it before you understand?”

“…From the Kingdom of Diabalet, and the reason you came to Ignote is sightseeing, and…”

“What is the point of parroting it back like that? Are you mocking me?”

Zeke did answer the soldier’s questions, but every single reply was abuse.

“Listen, you. Why is the one being interrogated acting so high and mighty…?”

“The reason is obvious. In every possible way, you and I are on completely different levels.”

“Captain! We’ve got some seriously dangerous foreigner in here!”

The soldier looked ready to cry as he called for help, but not a single person answered him.

“A grown man whining like that? Pathetic.”

“No, this is your fault, you know…”

Originally, two interrogators were supposed to question Zeke, but multiple incidents had piled up and the manpower had been pulled away.

“First off, I’ve never even heard of some House of Lagias, and do you have any idea how far it is from the Kingdom of Diabalet to here…?”

Several countries lay between here and there before one even reached the Republic of Ignote. It was not the sort of distance anyone could cover on foot.

“How comical, baring your own ignorance like that. Pitiful.”

“No good, I don’t understand a word you’re saying anymore.”

If he had traveled by carriage, there should have been some trace, but no such report had come in. In the first place, a broad stretch of forest lay before the Republic of Ignote, and the roads passable by horses were limited. The lack of any witnesses made the situation all the more unnatural.

“You might not know this as a foreigner, but there’s a barrier set up around this city. So if someone comes in without going through the proper procedures, we can identify them right away.”

“A barrier? …I know nothing of such a thing.”

“You don’t have to know about it! Every country has checkpoints! …Honestly, how in the world did you slip past ours?”

There were always a certain number of fools who tried to force their way through the checkpoints, but it was rare for someone to enter the country without anyone noticing.

“…And besides, even if you’re going to lie, you shouldn’t pick ‘noble’ as your cover. From this country’s point of view, nobles are anything but welcome, and right now it’s especially bad…”

“Hmph. About a hundred years ago, the nobles who ruled here were defeated by a revolutionary army. That was the origin of this country, was it not?”

A great revolution had dragged the noble rulers from their throne. The people of the time had suffered under a long tyranny.

“Why do you know that part? …Even now, there are people who see nobles as the very symbol of evil. So it’s smarter not to claim to be one so lightly.”

“Clinging to something that ended long ago… how pointless.”

“I kind of agree with you there, though.”

The soldier bent closer and lowered his voice, as if to share a secret.

“Thing is, we’ve had these little skirmishes lately with our neighbor, even though we signed a non-aggression pact with them…”

He explained that soldiers in the neighboring country’s uniforms had been sighted near the border time and again, and that it had sometimes escalated into actual combat.

“And the rumor is, those ‘soldiers’ are actually people from Ignote…”

The soldier spoke with a smug air, like he was sharing juicy gossip.

“On top of that, there are folks who carry the blood of the old Ignote principality nobles… and it sounds like this is all their little staged performance.”

When they investigated the people captured after those clashes, what surfaced behind the scenes were former nobles.

“The people themselves keep insisting they don’t know anything, of course.”

The soldier laid out his country’s circumstances without holding anything back. At this point, it was hard to tell who was interrogating whom.

“So that’s why a whole lot of soldiers have been mobilized. …Right now, the unit patrolling near the border is late getting back, so everyone’s on edge.”

This time he sighed heavily, looking thoroughly worn out.

“Lately we even brought in a top-class helper, but we still can’t get any decisive proof. It’s one of those deep-rooted problems unique to this country…”

“…I see. It seems incompetents have it hard in their own way.”

“Exactly.”

He grumbled, and then started rattling on all by himself, bad-mouthing his superiors.

“Struggle all you like in your unsightly way… I am finished here.”

Zeke stood up from his chair in one smooth motion and started for the exit.

“Yeah, see you la— wait, hold it! Where do you think you’re going!?”

“Are you an idiot? I am not free to waste time here.”

“I’m not free either! I told you I’m busy, didn’t I? If you just stop lying and go through proper immigration procedures, we’ll let you go, so take this seriously!”

Zeke clicked his tongue in obvious irritation. From his point of view, he had told them nothing but the truth, yet he still could not gain their trust. They remained at an impasse.

“That’s why you… huh? It sounds kind of noisy outside.”

“Perhaps some fellow fools of yours are howling out there.”

“…You definitely don’t have any friends, do you.”

Soldiers were rushing about in a flurry. Something must have happened.

“I’m going to check what’s going on outside, so you stay here.”

“A foolish decision…”

Leaving Zeke behind by himself, the soldier left the room.

A strange scene spread out before the military facility. People in the neighboring country’s uniforms had been bound and were surrounded by soldiers of the Republic of Ignote. A dangerous tension hung in the air.

“Senpai, what in the world happened here…?”

“Oh, Kratz. Apparently a patrol unit was attacked while on watch. And these are the ones who carried it out…”

The soldier who had been interrogating Zeke was named Kratz. According to his senior, the people now in restraints had launched an attack on the soldiers assigned to the patrol.

“If they’re wearing the neighboring country’s uniforms, that means…”

“…They’re just look-alike fakes. That’s all these ones are.”

With restraints and magic, their movements had been completely sealed, and they lay scattered on the ground. They were raising a racket, apparently unhappy with how they were being treated.

“Why are these troublemakers the ones making all the noise, seriously…”

“Maybe it’s their tainted blood that drives them to it.”

One of the restrained men overreacted to the soldier’s casual remark.

“You cur, we can hear you! How dare a mongrel like you insult us!”

“Do you even understand the position you’re in? How exactly do you plan to explain yourself?”

A man who seemed to be their commanding officer tried talking to him in a calming tone, but it only added fuel to the fire, and the prisoner shouted even louder.

“Senpai, that man is…”

“Yeah, Hofran of the House of Eeful… was it?”

The House of Eeful—one of the noble families that had existed in the days of the Principality of Ignote. Hofran was infamous as a madman who kept claiming the right to rule even after the noble system had been abolished.

“They must have dangled something like, ‘Once the rebellion topples the regime, we’ll put you in some important post,’ and carried him along with it…”

“Wow… that’s kind of embarrassing and kind of pitiful at the same time.”

They must have prepared a decent amount of force, which was why getting captured like this had never figured into their plans. Unable to accept his current situation, he looked more like he had snapped and was lashing out.

“Shame on you for clinging to outsiders with such a foolish choice!”

“He is a guest formally requested by the military.”

A fully armored figure stood at attention a short distance away. The ominous look of that armor made everyone give him a wide berth.

“He’s incredible, isn’t he… This time too, he crushed the rebels in an instant.”

“Managing to capture every last one of them is huge. It’ll be hard for them to talk their way out of this now.”

Thanks to the work of the man they called the “Yaksha,” they had been able to keep the damage down, but until now they had never managed a complete suppression. Because the attackers wore the neighboring country’s uniforms, they could not strike recklessly.

“What a bunch of fools. I can only assume they have lost their minds.”

“Right? …Wait, why are you out here!? You’re not allowed to just come out on your own!”

Zeke looked down on everyone else as a matter of course and had slipped into the conversation as if it were only natural, but he was quickly noticed.

“Hey, Kratz. This boy is the suspected illegal entrant…”

“Yes, that’s him. …This is bad if you don’t behave yourself. They’ll start questioning whether it was the soldiers who messed up.”

“Y-you! You’re the brat who interfered with us, aren’t you!?”

Hofran had been snapping at everything that entered his field of view, but the moment he saw Zeke, his attitude shifted dramatically.

“What is this trash who looks like he has no brains?”

“W-what did you say!? Who do you think you’re speaking to with such drivel!”

“I care nothing for who you are—only for the fact that you are a deranged fool who lost miserably and is now embracing the dirt.”

Just as Zeke said, the restrained men were being held firmly down. Seeing the state he himself was in, Hofran howled even louder.

“You know these people?”

“Hmph. They were the ones who struck first.”

They had questioned Zeke because of the possibility he had entered the country illegally, but they had never truly suspected him. If anything, they had suspected their own blunder instead—though in reality, illegal entry had indeed taken place.

“Don’t tell me you’re… a walking headache?”

“I am still more decent than you, who leak information to foreigners.”

If both Hofran’s and Zeke’s statements were true, they now needed to hear the details. Witnesses other than soldiers were valuable. Of course, they would also have to ask why Zeke had been wandering in the deep forest near the border.

“…I did not expect we would meet again in this country.”

“One bothersome person after another…”

The man known as the Yaksha addressed Zeke, and this time it was Kratz who looked shaken by what he saw.

“…It is Blood. …Perhaps this, too, is some kind of fate.”

“Get lost. Do not speak to me so casually.”

Someone’s choices could become the trigger for a new encounter, regardless of the people’s own intentions.