Episode 46

By Zeke’s magic, Hofran and the others were wiped out. Their lives were not in danger, but they were in no state to continue fighting.

“…Wh-y…? We bore the Water God’s radiance…”

“Oh? You still have the leisure to spout nonsense?”

Most of them had lost consciousness, but Hofran still seemed to be aware.

“I can concede that you have a certain amount of tenacity… but understand this already: you lot were nothing but disposable pawns.”

“N-not true. We… will restore… the principality’s glory. ―!? Guh, a-aaaargh…!”

Whether it was the result of forcing his body too far or not, cracks ran all across his flesh and blood spurted out. The abnormality was obvious.

“That is reality. There is no such thing as conveniently obtaining power easily and without risk. You were just used.”

Power that was granted in exchange for life force and mana—that was roughly how Zeke concluded it worked.

“Stop disgracing yourself any further, or you will die.”

It was neither goodwill nor malice. He merely stated the objective truth with cold indifference.
Whether from his injuries or from shock, Hofran’s words did not continue.

“…Looks like it is over.”

“Hmph, enjoying the view from on high, are you? Must be nice to have such exalted status.”

“…Their power was not ordinary. I cannot hold back the way you can.”

Blood stood there in the same ominous armor as ever. In his hand he gripped an equally abnormal spear.

“…For the first time in a while, I felt the armor stir. I wonder what that was.”

“How should I know? But if they were disposable pawns, that means there has to be a real main force somewhere else.”

“…I see. Then, if the time comes that I am swallowed by it―”

Blood did not finish his sentence. Reinforcement soldiers had arrived and cut him off.

“Even to hear your story, both the assaulted soldiers and the rebels are lying there out cold. First, we need to hear what you have to say.”

“Hear what I have to say? Why don’t you start by confirming your own failure? I settled the mess from a hundred years ago for you. You should at least be grateful.”

Zeke ended up being detained on suspicion of the crime of insulting the state.

“How many times does this make? How long am I supposed to put up with this farce?”

“That is my line, you fool…!”

Zeke now sat in an interrogation room. By the fourth round of questioning, it no longer felt the least bit novel. His counterpart was the same interrogator as always.

“What charge did you falsify this time? Did you want to come to this room that badly?”

“Of course not! There is nothing false about the charges! Do you not know the word ‘remorse’?”

“Remorse? Was it not your half-baked purge that led to this situation? If it were me, I would have erased them without question.”

“Exactly that, you idiot! Who rejects the very state in front of the army?!”

He said that when someone flatly denied the very foundations of the country, the army had no choice but to act—even if the person in question was a meritorious defender of the realm who had protected it from reckless acts.

“Honestly… Let us resume the questioning. What did you think of the escapees’ power? I hear the soldiers were no match for them at all.”

“That was because of your own pathetic performance. I did not feel they were a threat.”

“There are reports they skillfully wielded water-element mana and enhanced their swordplay and magic…”

Zeke dismissed it as rubbish in a single breath. If you became elated over gaining a bit of extra strength, he said, you were no different from some random child in the streets.

The questioning about the enhanced Hofran and his group went on, as though the interrogator were trying to confirm its c o s t – e f f e c t i v e n e s s.

“One last confirmation: if you could obtain that power, would you want it?”

“I would not. Counterfeit power has no value.”

“I see,” the interrogator concluded. For just an instant, a smile flickered at the corner of his mouth.

“By the way, I was not on-site, so I do not know exactly what that power was like… but would it happen to be a power like this?”

“…I see. So that is how it is.”

A blue light gathered in the interrogator’s right hand. It was the same thing that had cloaked Hofran and the others.

“Now then, shall we have ourselves a very enjoyable interrogation?”

Relying on Zeke’s advice, Kratz had been searching his family home. After spending more than half a day, he finally managed to find, deep in the warehouse, a pendant engraved with the state crest from the days of the principality.

(Even putting aside whether it proves anything or not, if this were found it would be really bad. I should quietly dispose of it.)

Simply possessing it was not a crime, but it was obvious that it would worsen people’s view of Kratz and the House of Line. Without Zeke’s warning, he probably would have thrown it away without a second thought.

He did not have absolute confidence, but there were no other promising leads. Time passing would only make the situation worse. All he could do now was act.

“I came all this way on sheer momentum, but… how did it end up like this? It is blown to pieces.”

This was the noble faction’s base that the odd trio of Zeke, Blood, and Kratz had reached. It had once been an impressive residence, but now it was in a pitiful state. Not just the entryway that Zeke had destroyed—virtually the entire building had been blasted apart. It looked as though some kind of force had destroyed it from within.

“…Kratz? You were dispatched here as well?”

“Senpai!? What in the world happened here?”

This was the soldier Kratz looked up to as his senior. Even knowing the House of Line’s circumstances, he had never treated Kratz any differently—an earnest man.

“Exactly what it looks like. Apparently those people suddenly appeared inside this house. They rampaged with absurd power, and this is the result.”

“So just as we suspected, this was a transfer point.”

“Transfer…? What are you talking about? Anyway, the comrades who were on guard duty are badly wounded. We are run ragged with rescue, treatment, and cleaning up the mess.”

(The information about the teleportation was not shared?)

“Wasn’t there talk that the crest in question had some kind of magical mechanism, and that it was most likely a teleportation spell?”

“Hmm? The analysis team was looking into it, but they never found anything, did they? Well, in this situation, there is probably no need for an investigation anymore.”

Kratz felt a sense of wrongness. It was strange that this senior, of all people, did not know information that even a low-ranking soldier like Kratz did.

He was certain he had heard it—from the interrogator, who had spoken about teleportation.

“From the look of it, you were away from headquarters too. After this, Hofran and his lot apparently attacked a military facility.”

“A military base? They had that kind of power…?”

According to the senior soldier, they had driven back many soldiers with supernatural strength. The damage had been devastating, but in the end they had been suppressed thanks to the efforts of a certain ally.

“It was that foreigner who was with you. Those guys are abnormal, but that self-proclaimed noble boy is something else entirely.”

“H-ha ha… He does not really know how to hold back. So… where is Zeke now?”

“Here is the strange part: they say he has been detained on the charge of insulting the state. I could understand if they were praising him, but arrested?”

An indefinable sense of unease passed through his chest.

“Let me introduce myself properly. In the army, I go by the name Faldar. Sometimes I am a soldier, sometimes an interrogator.”

They had faced each other over and over during questioning, but now his atmosphere was completely different.

“My true name is Zepha Fonravchino. I am of the blood of the nobles who once ruled this land.”

“Ha. And now you are some small-time flunky in the army? Pathetic.”

“It has been… complicated, you see. But still, it has not been so bad—watching everyone panic and flail about.”

Zepha smiled in a way that radiated calm. Perhaps it was the mark of absolute confidence.

“I did suspect that the reason for your detention this time was a bit forced. As it happens, our comrades pulled some strings for us.”

“That is a relief to hear. I could not believe anyone with a sound mind had come up with it.”

He had thought it strange from the start. But if he lost his temper and went on a rampage, he might be forcibly deported, which would be a disaster, so he had watched and waited.

“So, what do you want with me? If it is a trivial reason, I will erase you.”

“Bold words, foreign noble. I told you at the very beginning, did I not? I came to propose a deal.”

Zepha spoke of the foreign boy who had subdued Hofran and the others near the border. The boy who had tracked them by their mana traces alone and overpowered his “blessed comrades”―the disposable pawns. Zepha said he had had his eye on Zeke from the start.

“That power of yours… it is extremely intriguing. How about it? Will you not become one of the pillars of our principality? We would be happy to welcome you.”

“You do not seem to know anything about Lagias either. A new principality with no grasp of diplomacy… it will be crushed in no time. Give it up.”

“I would not make a move without having my cards ready. We have gained more than enough power to make the mongrels kneel.”

In sheer numbers of troops, Zepha’s noble faction was clearly inferior. They should have been nowhere near having the strength to rule the people by force alone.

“Revealing your true identity to me like this… How naive.”

“A foreigner with no trust, or Faldar with a sterling reputation. Which do you think they will believe?”

Soon, he said, everything would be dragged into the light. The time for playing the fool was over—so Zepha declared.

“Well, no matter. You can watch the birth of the new principality from your cell. As long as you are wearing those restraints, you cannot use your mana.”

Naturally, measures had been taken to keep suspects from going on a rampage during interrogation. Zeke was no exception.

“The next time we meet, I will be expecting a splendid answer. Until then, farewell.”

After hearing from the senior soldier, Kratz hurried back, but the interrogation had already ended.

“This is going too far, no matter how you look at it! Detaining him for such unjust reasons…!”

“You should worry about yourself. Your next employer might not be so kind.”

“Next employer? What are you talking about?”

He appealed to the jailer, but they were not on the same wavelength. The man just grinned at him with an unpleasant smirk.

“Even if the country changes, you will still be a useless wreck. …If you want to see him that badly, then go. We are busy.”

Normally, there would have been paperwork and a guard escort. But whether he truly was that busy or not, the jailer left his post.

(Things really are wrong. This is not normal.)

A sense of dread welled up in his chest. It was not only the soldiers―even Wartel itself felt off. The amount of water flowing around the city was abnormally high. The residents were so uneasy that they could not chalk it up to seasonal factors alone.

“Zeke! Are you all right!?”

“………And who might you be?”

“It is Kratz! This is not the time to play dumb! More importantly, why are you the one who ended up locked up!?”

Kratz fired off his questions one after another in a rapid barrage. Zeke answered him with an air of annoyance.

“No way… Faldar-san was a traitor…”

“He is not the only one. Fake nobles and those who have been bought off have wormed their way into the army. This is the bill for all those years coming due. Hilarious, is it not?”

“It is not hilarious at all!”

Kratz shot back, but this was a crisis that shook the nation. There was a note of panic clinging to the ends of his words.

“Thinking back, it was always Faldar-san who handled the interrogations. That was odd. And he talked about teleportation that the army did not know about… What was he after?”

“A view from above. Absolute confidence. He was laughing at us, I would say. Or perhaps he was testing us.”

“For what purpose…?”

He racked his brain desperately, but no answer surfaced. Time simply slipped by.

“Anyway, we have to get you out of here!”

“A soldier helping a prisoner escape? The army really is done for.”

“No… This is an action with a legitimate reason behind it.”

His averted gaze and fidgety manner made it obvious he was acting suspiciously.

“…I cannot do anything about those restraints or the cell’s lock. All I can do is appeal to my superiors…”

“Are you an idiot? How do you plan to tell the trash apart? Do you have a death wish?”

As Zeke said, it was hard to tell friend from foe. And he still had no clear picture of what “cards” Faldar had been referring to.

“Hmph. Well, I do not mind leaving things as they are.”

“As they are? What do you mean by that?”

“Just what I said. Whatever happens to you lot has nothing to do with me.”

“―Huh?”

Time seemed to stop. Kratz could not comprehend what Zeke was saying.

“I do not know what you have misunderstood, but I am not your little buddy.”

“B-but you helped us over and over. You saved the soldiers when we were attacked…”

“They were an eyesore. So I erased them. …Did you seriously think I act on goodwill alone?”

“Come on…”

Kratz muttered. After everything, he had thought he understood what kind of person Zeke was. That the boy, foul-mouthed as he was, could act for the sake of others.

(No, that is not right. This is my bad habit… relying on someone else right away.)

If he thought about it, his relationship with Zeke had begun with illegal entry.

He had interrogated a foreign boy he could not make heads or tails of. A foul-mouthed boy who brazenly called himself a noble had given him no end of trouble. He had been stuck as the one keeping watch on him, sharing food, clothing, and shelter, and even running investigations together. Looking back, that relationship had only existed because there was a “deal” between them.

(Come to think of it, I never did ask what he really came to Wartel for… I just assumed I knew.)

“…I am sorry. I was wrong. From your point of view, you are right—it has nothing to do with you. This is Ignote’s problem.”

To drag someone he had only known for a few days into internal turmoil… Kratz was not selfish enough to do that.

“I told you before, because of how I was born, I have always struggled to communicate with others. …That is why, with you, I could talk without worrying about anything. …It was fun.”

He gripped the pendant he kept in his breast pocket―a reminder not to waste the advice he had received from the boy before him. A reminder to protect the people who mattered to him.

“I am going. Just like always, I might not be able to do anything… but you, you find a way to escape.”

Kratz ran off. It might have been his imagination, but his usual air of unreliability seemed to have vanished. That was how it felt.

“…At least listen until the end, you fool.”