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Overlord - Chapter 22
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1
Zaryusu had been riding Rororo through the marsh for half a day. The sun had climbed high into the sky, but the enemy encounter he’d been fearing hadn’t occurred, and he reached his destination safely.
There were several dwellings built in the marsh in the same way Green Claw’s were, and wooden posts sharpened to a point surrounded the area, facing outward. The posts had large gaps between them, but they would prevent a larger monster like Rororo from invading. This village had fewer houses than Green Claw had, but the buildings themselves were larger. For that reason, it was hard to tell which tribe’s population was higher. One of the buildings had a flag waving outside. On it was the Red Eye tribe’s emblem.
Yes, this was the first destination Zaryusu had chosen, the Red Eye village.
After taking a quick scan around, he breathed a sigh of relief. It was extremely good luck they were still living in the same area of the marsh as they had a long time ago. Since it was possible that they’d moved due to the war, he’d thought he might have to start by searching around for them.
Zaryusu turned to look back the way he came. He could see his own village. They must be in a huge hurry to get ready. Now that he was away, he felt anxious, but he could safely assume there was practically no chance of their being attacked.
That he’d made it here in one piece was proof of that.
Was the Great One or whoever off his guard? Or had he expected Zaryusu’s actions? That wasn’t clear. At least for now, the enemy didn’t seem in the mood to break their promise or obstruct the lizardmen’s war prep. Of course, even if this great enemy did move to stop them, Zaryusu’s only option was to do what he believed in.
He dismounted Rororo and stretched his back. His muscles were stiff from riding for so long, but stretching made them feel better, even good. Then he told Rororo to wait for him and gave him some dried fish from his bag for combined breakfast and lunch. He would rather have instructed him to procure his own food somewhere in the area, but considering that might involve infringing on the Red Eye tribe’s hunting grounds, he decided against it. After petting each of Rororo’s snake heads a couple of times, Zaryusu left him and set off walking.
With Rororo nearby, people might be wary of the hydra and not come out to meet him. Zaryusu was a messenger bringing an offer of alliance. He didn’t want to seem coercive or threatening.
His feet made a splish-splash noise in the water as he walked.
At the edge of his field of vision, he spotted several members of the Red Eye warrior caste walking parallel with him on the opposite side of the post enclosure. Their gear was no different from that of Green Claw’s warriors. They wore no armor and carried spears made from sharpened bones attached to sticks. Some had sling-like straps, so the fact that they didn’t have any rocks at the ready told him they had no immediate intent to attack.
He took care not to provoke them as he walked around to the main gate. Then he faced the lizardmen watching him from the other side and raised his voice. “I’m Zaryusu Shasha of the Green Claw tribe. I want to have a word with this tribe’s chief!”
Eventually—it wasn’t a terribly short amount of time, but it certainly wasn’t long—an elderly lizardman with a gnarled staff and white symbols on his body appeared. Five robust lizardmen followed behind.
A priest?
Zaryusu stood proudly. Right now they were equal. He couldn’t bow his head. Even when the priest’s eyes moved to the brand on his chest, he maintained the same posture.
“I’m Zaryusu Shasha from the Green Claw tribe. I have something to discuss with your chief.”
“I won’t say it was good of you to come, but it seems the one who leads our tribe will see you. Follow me.”
The strange turn of phrase confused Zaryusu for a moment. Why not “chief”? And they didn’t even ask for proof that he was who he said he was. He didn’t want to begin the conversation too clumsily and upset them. Despite feeling that something was off, he silently followed.
The hut they led him to was a fine dwelling. In terms of his own tribe, it was even bigger than his brother’s house. Patterns in rare dyes decorated the walls, which spoke to the high status of the one who lived there.
One thing that caught his attention was the lack of windows; the only openings were small holes here and there for air. Like all lizardmen, Zaryusu could see fine in the dark, but that didn’t mean he preferred living in it. So why is their leader staying in such a dark room? Zaryusu wondered, but there didn’t seem to be anyone who could answer for him.
He turned around. The priest and warriors who had guided him there were already gone. Initially, he’d thought leaving him alone was incredibly imprudent, to the point where he even indirectly asked them about it. But when they said that they were leaving because the acting chief wished it, his opinion of the person waiting in the room jumped.
Despite what he’d said to his brother, Zaryusu didn’t expect to make it back unscathed, but for the Red Eye tribe to surround him with armed warriors and pressure him would have been useless. Probably the first thing he would have felt was disappointment at their caliber as warriors. But if they’d read him so well and were acting generous… They might be good negotiators, difficult to deal with…
Ignoring the sensation of distant eyes on him, he approached the door and raised his voice. “I am Zaryusu Shasha of the Green Claw tribe. I’ve been told the leader of this tribe is here! Allow me to come in!”
He heard a quiet sound, a hoarse female voice giving him permission to enter.
Zaryusu pushed open the door with no hesitation. Inside it was dark, as he expected. The contact with the light outside made him blink even though he could see in the dark. The smell that wafted out was something like an herbal bath, a pungent mix of greens. He figured the one inside would be an elderly female, but what he found completely overturned his expectations.
“Good of you to come,” a voice said to him from the darkness. From the other side of the door, she’d sounded old, but now he could hear youthful energy.
Once his eyes adjusted, she came into view.
She’s white.
That was his first impression.
Her scales were white like snow without a single impurity. Her deep crimson eyes sparkled like rubies. Her slender body was not masculine but feminine. White-and-red symbols covered her. They meant she was an adult, that she was proficient in many types of spells—and that she was single.
What does it feel like to be stabbed with a spear? Zaryusu knew. First, a hot, burning sensation shot through the body, and with every heartbeat came a sharp, all-encompassing pain. And that’s how Zaryusu was feeling right now.
It didn’t hurt. It just…
He simply stood there, not saying anything.
How did she interpret his silence? A cynical smile appeared on her face.
“So I look strange even to the bearer of Frost Pain, one of the Four Great Treasures, hmm?”
Albinos are extremely rare in nature—in part because they stick out, which makes surviving difficult.
In lizardman society, the situation was similar. They weren’t quite civilized enough to guarantee the survival of members who had poor eyesight and were weak against sunlight. It was rare that albinos lived into adulthood, and in some cases, they were even culled at birth.
If the other lizardmen viewed albinos as just a nuisance, that would be tolerable, but in some cases they were even seen as monsters. That was the root of her cynicism.
But prejudice wasn’t Zaryusu’s issue.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, perplexed that he was still standing in front of the door, doing nothing.
Then, without replying to her question, he emitted a call with vibrato that ended on a high tone. Hearing that, the female’s eyes popped open and her jaw dropped slightly. She was part shocked, part confused, and part scandalized.
It was a mating call.
Zaryusu came back to himself, and realizing what he’d just done, what call he’d just unconsciously performed, he reacted in a way similar to a human blushing: His tail flailed around—so violently it seemed like he might damage the hut. “Ah no, I didn’t mean that. I mean…no, uh—”
Perhaps Zaryusu’s surprise and panic had the contrary effect of smoothing her feathers. Her teeth clacked as she smiled and said awkwardly, “Please calm down. It’ll just cause trouble for me if you get all rowdy.”
“Oh! Sorry.” He bobbed his head in apology and entered the house.
By this point, the female lizardman’s tail was drooping down and suggesting she had regained her composure, but the twitching tip showed that she hadn’t calmed down completely.
“Have a seat.” She indicated a cushion, which was woven out of some kind of plant, placed on the floor.
“Thanks.”
Zaryusu sat down, and she mirrored him.
“Pleased to meet you. I’m a traveler from the Green Claw tribe, Zaryusu Shasha.”
“Thank you for the polite introduction. I’m the acting chief of the Red Eye tribe, Crusch Lulu.”
Having finished with the formalities, they visually appraised each other.
Silence reigned in the hut for a little while, but it couldn’t stay like that forever. Zaryusu was a guest. The one to speak first had to be Crusch, the host.
“First of all, messenger, I don’t think there is any need for us to stand on ceremony. I’d like to speak with our mouths wide open, so feel free to relax.”
This meant she wanted to speak honestly, and Zaryusu nodded. “Thanks for that. I’m not used to speaking formally.”
“So, can I ask why you came here?” Crusch asked, although she had a pretty good idea. An undead suddenly appearing in the middle of the village; someone using the tier-four spell Control Cloud; this visiting male from another tribe, one who some called a hero. There was only one thing it could be. Crusch imagined how he would answer—and he demolished her expectations.
“Marry me.”
“…
“?
“?!
“Whaaaat?!” For a moment, she couldn’t believe her ears.
“Of course, that’s not the reason I came here. I fully understand I should get the real reason out of the way before moving on to this, but I can’t lie to myself. Feel free to laugh and call me a foolish man.”
“Uh, er, ah… Haaaa.” These words she’d never heard before, words she thought would never have anything to do with her, sent a storm of confusion ripping through her train of thought and tearing it irreparably apart.
Zaryusu smiled awkwardly at her and continued speaking. “Sorry. Really, my apologies. And during an emergency! You can let me know your answer later.”
“Uh, o-okay…” Somehow managing to put her mind back together, or perhaps reboot it, Crusch regained her composure. But she instantly remembered what he’d just said, and her temperature felt ready to skyrocket.
She looked over the male before her, making sure he didn’t notice. His countenance was extremely calm. How can he be so relaxed after saying something like that to me…? Is he out there courting all the time?! Or does he get propositioned a lot…? I mean, it did sound cool… Ahh, what am I thinking? This was his plan for sure! He wants to get me in the palm of his hand. Wh-why would he want to mate with me, anyway?
Crusch was so thrown off at being seen as a female for the first time that she didn’t have the wherewithal to notice the tip of Zaryusu’s tail spasming, too. The male before her was mobilizing every ounce of his mental energy to suppress the frank expression of all the things in his heart.
That was what created this lull. They both needed some quiet time under the veil of silence to cool down their dizzy heads.
Finally, after enough time had elapsed, Crusch thought they should return to their previous topic for starters. She was about to ask him again why he’d come to their village when she remembered what he said last time.
How can I ask now?!
Her tail kerwhapped the floor once, and the male in front of her jerked as if she’d hit him.
Crusch inwardly fretted that her behavior was too rude. Even if he was a traveler, he had still come as the representative of his tribe, and he wasn’t just any lizardman—he was the hero who possessed Frost Pain. He was too important to take this attitude with. But it’s your fault! More importantly, say something!
Unbeknownst to Crusch, who was busy controlling the volcano erupting inside her, Zaryusu had chosen silence out of shame for his indiscreet behavior.
The wordless void continued, and Crusch resigned herself to the fact that if this kept up there would be nothing she could do, but then finally, she thought to change the subject.
“Should I have expected that you wouldn’t be afraid of me?”
Her question, tinged with cynicism, was met with a silent query from Zaryusu: What are you talking about?
Crusch thought in turn, What is this guy thinking? “I was asking if you’re afraid of this white body of mine.”
“…It’s like the snow that caps the mountains.”
“…Huh?”
“It’s a pretty color.”
Of course, she had never once in her life heard those words before.
Wh-what is th-this guy saying? Unable to withstand her internal pressure, the lid keeping her emotions in check was blown off with enough force to send it flying.
Zaryusu reached out casually and ran a hand over her scales. They were lustrous and pretty as if they’d been polished—and a little cold. His hand glided over them.
“Sha!” Crusch emitted an exhalation that sounded like a short threat.
That restored at least a smidgen of their respective calms.
They both understood—what had happened, what he had done without thinking—and they were both shaken. What instinct had made him do that? Why did that happen to her? They became impatient with the questions, and the impatience bred confusion.
The result was their two tails batting against the hut, whap, whap, so hard that it shook.
After a couple of moments, they looked at each other’s faces, noticed what they were doing, and both tails froze as if time itself had stopped.
“…”
“…”
Was heavy the word for this atmosphere? Or tense? Silence fell over them and they glanced at each other.
Crusch had finally gotten her feelings sorted, and with a cold look in her eye that said she wasn’t going to tolerate any lies, she asked, “This is all very sudden… What’s with you?”
She hadn’t been able to express herself very well in words, but Zaryusu seemed to understand and replied honestly with no hesitation. “Love at first sight. And I might die in this fight, so I don’t want to have any regrets.”
Hearing his simple honesty, his words that seemed to hide nothing, Crusch found herself at a loss for a moment. But part of them she just couldn’t buy. “…The bearer of Frost Pain has resigned to die?”
“We don’t know how many we’re up against. We can’t be careless… Did you see the monster who brought the message? The one that came to my village was…”
Zaryusu described it and Crusch nodded. “Yes, it’s the same one.”
“Do you know what it is?”
“No, no one in my tribe knows.”
“Oh…I met one once.” He stopped there to see her reaction. “I ran away.”
“Huh?”
“I couldn’t have won. Well, at best I would’ve been half-dead by the end.”
Crusch understood what a terrifying undead it was and was relieved that holding back the warriors had been the right decision.
“It can scream in a way that messes with your head. Also, it’s incorporeal, so it’s basically immune to attacks that aren’t made with enchanted weapons. Even with numbers, you can’t win.”
“With druid magic we can enchant weapons for a limited time.”
“Can you block attacks on the mind?”
“We can boost resistance, but we don’t have quite enough power to protect everyone.”
“I see… Can any priest do that?”
“Almost all of them can boost resistance. I’m the only one in this tribe who can protect someone from confusion, though.”
Crusch noticed Zaryusu’s breathing grow a little rough. It seemed like he’d realized that her position wasn’t just for show.
Yes, Crusch Lulu was quite an accomplished druid and probably possessed more power than any lizardman head priest.
“What number was the Red Eye tribe on the attack list?”
“It told us fourth.”
“Hmm. And what are you going to do about it?”
Time passed.
Crusch wondered what the point of talking about it was. Green Claw had surely chosen to fight. Zaryusu had probably come to form an alliance, was going to say Fight with us. Where was the benefit in that for Red Eye?
They weren’t interested in forming an alliance. They were for evacuation. It was the height of stupidity to go up against an opponent who could use tierfour magic. And if the messenger was really so horrible, what other conclusion could there be?
But could she bluntly say all that?
As she swirled in the whirlpool of her thoughts, Zaryusu smiled and said, as if he were talking to himself, “I’ll go ahead and say what I really think.”
What’s he going to say? Crusch fixed her eyes on him.
“What I’m worried about is what happens after the evacuation.” Crusch didn’t seem to grasp his meaning, so he spoke matter-of-factly. “Even if we’re able to move from this place we’re so used to, do you really think we’ll manage to have the same lifestyle somewhere else?”
“No…I mean, it would be difficult.”
Leaving this place and creating a new habitat would require a fight for survival—they would have to win in that ecosystem’s struggle for existence. The lizardmen weren’t champions of the lake or anything, and acquiring the marsh had taken years and years. There was no way their race could build a habitat in an unfamiliar place just like that.
“There’s also a real possibility that we won’t be able to gather enough food.”
Not understanding what he was getting at, she responded in a prickly, confused voice. “Yeah.”
“So what would happen if all five tribes in this area tried to evacuate?”
“Then…” She didn’t know what to say—because she had finally figured out what Zaryusu meant.
Even though the lake was vast, an evacuation spot that one tribe chose was bound to look good to the others as well. What would they do if a fishing rivalry broke out when they were already fighting a new struggle for existence? That could get ugly. It could end up like the war.
“But you can’t mean… Fighting when we’re not sure we can win isn’t any…”
“No, it’s not. I’m counting on reducing the number of mouths across all tribes.”
“That’s your reason?!”
That was why he wanted to form an army and fight, even if they lost—just to decrease the population of lizardmen. The idea that those besides the warriors, hunters, and priests fighting for their survival could die was extreme, but she could understand it. No, having them die might even be the correct choice in the long run.
If there were fewer mouths to feed, they could get away with less food. Then they might have a chance at cohabitating.
Crusch desperately searched for a way to refute the argument. “You’re saying that even though we don’t know how dangerous the new spot might be, we should go in with smaller numbers?”
“Listen to me. Even if we take over the area no problem, then what? If the fish supply runs low, the five tribes will just have to kill one another!”
“But we might be able to catch lots of fish!”
“And if we can’t?”
His cold retort left her lost for words.
Zaryusu was basing his actions on the next-to-worst-case scenario. Crusch was making mostly hopeful observations. If they operated based on her ideas and something bad happened, it would be a disaster, but it wouldn’t be if they went with Zaryusu’s plan.
And if the number of adult lizardmen decreased as a result of their defeat, at least they would have died honorable deaths.
“If you refuse, we’ll have to fight you first.”
His dark voice gave Crusch chills.
He’d announced he wasn’t going to let Red Eye be the only tribe to maintain its population and move to a new location. That was a valid decision, and she understood it completely. It was the only way to avoid the danger of weakened tribes being destroyed by Red Eye and the numbers they had preserved. It was only natural that one entrusted with their tribe’s survival would think in that way. She would probably do the same thing if she were in his position.
“I think the chances of killing one another in the new land will be lower if we form an alliance, even if we lose.”
Crusch didn’t understand him and let a genuine expression of puzzlement appear on her face.
Zaryusu explained in another way. “We’ll have deeper friendship ties. Instead of different tribes, we’ll feel like comrades who fought together.”
“I see.” She rolled the words around in her mouth.
So if tribes spilled blood together, things would be less likely to devolve into a fatal fight, even if the food situation was bad? But she wondered, based on her experience, if that was really true.
As Crusch delved into her own thoughts, facing slightly downward in silence, Zaryusu asked in a voice that troubled her, “By the way, how did your tribe make it through that time?”
It was like she’d been stabbed with a needle. Her head jerked up in spite of herself. When she looked at him, she saw he was surprised. Oh, so he really doesn’t know.
They hadn’t been together long, but Crusch had already gotten the hang of Zaryusu’s personality. She instinctively understood that he wasn’t asking as a threat.
She narrowed her eyes and looked at him intently, like she was trying to bore a hole into his head. She knew the baffled Zaryusu had no idea why he was getting such a stare, but she couldn’t stop.
“Do I have to answer?”
Crusch’s voice was full of loathing. The change was so dramatic it nearly felt like he was talking to a different person.
But Zaryusu couldn’t back down. Maybe her answer would save them all.
“I want to know. Was it the power of your priests? Or some other way? Maybe it can save u—” Having said that much, he faltered.
If there was a way to save them, Crusch wouldn’t look so pained.
Perhaps she was able to read what Zaryusu was thinking just then. She snorted and scoffed at the whole thing, herself included. “That’s right. There’s no way to save anyone at all.” She paused and smiled an exhausted smile. “We were cannibals. We ate our own dead.”
Zaryusu was shocked speechless. Killing the weak—decreasing the number of mouths to feed—was not taboo, but cannibalism was unclean, the most taboo of taboos.
Why did she tell me that? Why would she tell a secret she should have carried to her grave to a stranger from another tribe—a visitor? Does she not mean to let me go alive? …No, that can’t be right. I don’t get that feeling from her.
Crusch wasn’t sure why she’d said it, either. She knew plenty well how much lizardmen from other tribes would scorn them. So why…?
Her mouth chattered away as if she no longer had control over it. “Back then— When the other tribes started the war, we didn’t have enough food, either, and things were bad. The reason we didn’t fight in the war was that our tribe has a lot of priests and not many warriors. Thanks to the priests, we could make lots of food with magic.” She went on unceasingly as if possessed. “But the amount of food they could make was still insignificant compared to the number of tribe members. All we could do was face death and slowly tread the path to our extinction. But one day, the chief brought food—bright-red meat.”
Maybe I wanted someone to listen…to hear the story of my crime…
She ground her teeth together.
The male before her was quietly listening. If he felt disgust, it didn’t show on his face. Crusch was thankful for that.
“What kind of meat was it? Everyone pretty much knew. At the time, we had strict laws, and any family who broke them was kicked out of the village. Our chief brought meat just after some people had been banished. We just shut our eyes and ate it—to survive. But we couldn’t go on like that. At one point, all the built-up discontent exploded into a revolt.” She closed her eyes and remembered their chief. “We ate it… We knew, and we ate it, so we were just as guilty. Honestly, when I think of it now, it’s so strange.”
After a moment of silence, she looked squarely at Zaryusu. It surprised her to find a sensation of happiness inside, seeing no disgust in his quiet eyes. Why would I feel that way? She had a vague idea of the answer.
“…Please look at me. Every now and then in Red Eye, someone like me is born. They always have something they excel at—for me it was priestly powers. For that reason, our authority is second only to the chief. Then I went and led the revolution and revolted against him. The village split in two and fought, but my side won because we had more people.”
“And then because your population decreased, the food was enough to go around?”
“Yes… In the end, we survived. When we revolted, the chief wouldn’t surrender—he died having sustained countless wounds. And when I dealt the fatal blow, he smiled at me.” Crusch strung her words together painfully. They were like pus that had gradually gathered in her heart since the day she killed their chief.
To Zaryusu, she was finally able to spit out these things she’d never be able to say to the tribe—the ones who’dbelieved in her and fought against the chief. That was why she couldn’t stop; her words were like water flowing from high to low ground.
“It wasn’t the kind of smile you’d flash at someone who was killing you. There was no hatred, or envy, or hostility, or cursing, or anything. It was a truly lovely smile! Maybe the chief was right all along? I keep thinking that! With the death of our chief, the one who was the root of all our evil, the tribe came together again. And not only that, we even reduced our own number enough to solve the food issue!”
That was all she could take.
The dam broke with all the strength she had expended struggling to bear the burden of her crime as acting chief. She gulped back the muddy surge. With her thoughts in tatters, she couldn’t get them into words.
Weeping “kuu-kuu”—there weren’t many tears due to her biological structure, but the emotions were the same—she broke down.
Her body was so small.
When living in nature, weakness was as good as a crime. Of course, children were protected, but strength was a priority for adult male and female lizardmen equally. From that standpoint, she must have been humiliated. It couldn’t be good for the leader of the tribe to show weakness to a member of another tribe, someone she wasn’t even close to.
But the sentiments in Zaryusu’s heart weren’t anything like that. Maybe it was partly because she was a beautiful female. But more than that, she was a warrior, a wounded warrior who gasped, struggled, and still went forward. She’d shown only a glimpse of weakness.
If she was standing up and trying to go forward, she was no weakling.
Zaryusu approached and gently put his arms around her. “We aren’t allpowerful or all-knowing. All we can do is decide how to act as we go. I might have done the same thing in your position. I’m not trying to cheer you up. Are there any correct answers in this world? We just keep going forward, full of pain and regret, with scars on the bottoms of our feet. All you can do is go forward—that’s what I think.”
They could feel each other’s body heat and hear the beating of their hearts faintly. The two pulses gradually matched rhythms and created the illusion they were one.
It was a strange feeling.
Zaryusu felt a warmth he had never experienced in all his life as a lizardman. It wasn’t because he was holding another lizardman. Is it because I’m holding this female, Crusch Lulu?
A little time went by, and then Crusch lifted herself off Zaryusu’s chest.
As her body heat withdrew, Zaryusu felt it was unfortunate. Of course, he was too embarrassed to say so.
“I’ve made an unsightly impression… Do you hate me?”
“What’s unsightly? You struggle down your path, get hurt along the way, but continue on. Do I look like such a fool that I’d think that unsightly? … You’re beautiful.”
“!!!” Her white tail writhed, striking the floor several times. “…Yikes.”
Incapable of asking what she meant by that lone word, Zaryusu asked a different question. “More importantly, does Red Eye farm fish?”
“Farm?”
“Yeah. Raise fish for yourselves to eat.”
“We don’t do anything like that. Fish are a blessing from nature.”
As far as Zaryusu knew, no lizardman tribes had fish-farming technology. The very idea of increasing the amount of food they had with their own hands was foreign to them.
“That seems to be the way priests—druids—think, but could you change your mind? So that you can grow fish to eat? The priests in my tribe accepted it.”
Crusch bobbed her head yes.
“Then I’ll teach you how to farm. It’s important to give them the right food. You can use fruit that druids make with magic. They grow quite well when you give them those.”
“You really don’t mind sharing your technology with us?”
“Of course not. Hiding it won’t help anyone, and it’s more important to save the tribes.”
Crusch bowed low with her tail pointed up and thanked him. “I’m grateful.”
“You don’t really…have to thank me. In exchange, I need to ask you again…”
The emotion drained out of Crusch’s face.
That deeply calmed Zaryusu.
It was a question he couldn’t avoid.
He held his breath, and at the same time, Crusch inhaled.
Then he asked.
“What is Red Eye’s plan for the imminent war?”
“…We decided yesterday to evacuate.”
“Then I’ll ask the acting chief, Crusch Lulu. Do you still think you’ll do that?”
She couldn’t answer.
Her reply would decide the fate of her tribe. It was only natural to hesitate.
But Zaryusu could do nothing besides put on a troubled smile. “…It’s your decision. The reason your chief smiled at you in the end must have been because he was entrusting the tribe’s future to you. Now’s the time to carry out that mission. I’ve said everything I can say. All that’s left is for you to decide.”
Crusch’s eyes rolled, casting her gaze around the room. She wasn’t trying to escape or looking for help. She was just trying to arrive at the correct answer within herself.
No matter what her conclusion, Zaryusu would accept it.
“As the acting chief, let me ask you. How many are you going to allow to evacuate?”
“We’re planning to have each tribe evacuate ten warriors, twenty hunters, three priests, seventy males, a hundred females, and a few children.”
“…And the others?”
“Depending on the circumstances, we may just have them die.”
Crusch said nothing and merely looked up into empty space. Then she murmured, “I see.”
“So I want to know your decision, Acting Chief Crusch Lulu.”
Crusch considered all kinds of plans.
Killing Zaryusu was one option, of course. Personally, she didn’t want to do that, but as acting chief, she felt differently. I could kill him, and then the whole village could escape. She rejected that idea. It was a very dangerous gamble. In the first place, they didn’t even have any proof that he had come alone.
So how about promising him to fight and then running away? This could also be problematic. They ran the risk of his changing plans and opponents to cull the population by fighting with the Red Eye. His real goal was decreasing the number of mouths to feed. In that case, it didn’t matter who they fought.
In the end, if she said she wouldn’t form an alliance, he’d probably take that answer home and come back with an army to destroy the Red Eye.
However, maybe Zaryusu hadn’t noticed, but there was one hole in his plan. Even so, if they didn’t go with him, they wouldn’t be able to avoid the food problem.
Crusch smiled knowingly. There had been no way out of this conversation from the beginning—from the point she’d heard what he’d had to say, from the time the Green Claw tribe started their plan to form an alliance.
There was only one way for the Red Eye to survive: Join the alliance and fight with them. Zaryusu surely knew that, too.
So the reason he was waiting for her answer must have been because he wanted to make sure the commanding lizardman was worth allying with. And that they would commit. But if those words came out of her mouth, many lives would be lost. And—
“Let me say one thing. We’re not fighting to die—we’re fighting to win. I may have said some things that made you anxious, but if we beat the enemy, we’ll be laughing about it later. So please don’t misunderstand that point.”
Crusch nodded that she understood.
He is a really nice male, she thought as she gave her decision. “We of the Red Eye tribe will cooperate with you, so our chief’s smile won’t be meaningless and so as many Red Eye members as possible can survive.” She bowed deeply and stretched her tail straight up.
“I thank you.” He slowly bowed and lifted his tail; his actions said more than words could express.
•
Early in the morning…
Zaryusu stood in front of Rororo and gazed at the gate of the Red Eye village. He yawned a huge “kuwa” in spite of himself. He had participated as an observer in the Red Eye’s meeting until late the previous night, so he was a bit tired, but there wasn’t much time left. He had to get to another tribe today.
Fighting back sleep unsuccessfully, he yawned again, even bigger than before. He had the feeling that he would be able to sleep on Rororo even if his balance wasn’t that great.
He gazed at the rising sun—it seemed almost yellow—and then looked back to the gate and started. Something strange was coming out of it.
It was a clump of grass.
Weeds were growing here and there out of a tunic sewn with many loose strips of fabric and strings. If one laid it sideways in the marsh, from a distance it would have looked like a patch of grass.
Ah, I’ve seen a monster like this somewhere before. Zaryusu remembered something he’d seen on his travels. Behind him Rororo let out a low warning call.
Of course, he knew who it was. There was no mistaking her with her white tail peeking out a bit.
He watched the tail sway cheerfully and calmed Rororo down as the clump of grass came over to him.
“Morning!”
“Yeah, good morning… It seems you had no trouble getting the tribe on board?” He looked at the Red Eye dwellings. The village was in a frenzy first thing in the morning, and lizardmen ran busily to and fro.
Crusch stood next to him, facing the same direction, and answered, “Yes, no trouble. We should be ready to leave for the Razor Tail tribe today, and the evacuees should be ready soon, too.”
According to information the priests received via magic, Razor Tail had been sentenced to annihilation first. Timing-wise, it was fortunate that it hadn’t been Dragon Tusk.
“So why did you come out here, Crusch?”
“It’s simple, Zaryusu. But before that, tell me what you’re planning to do now.”
After the meeting that lasted from evening into the early morning, it seemed natural to call each other by name. They’d gotten closer, so they could speak more at ease.
“I’m going to go to another tribe, Dragon Tusk.”
“Strength is everything to them, right? Supposedly they have the most powerful military of all the tribes.”
“Yeah, that’s right. We’ve never had dealings with them before, so I have to go prepared.”
Everything he’d ever heard about them was wrapped in mystery, so going at all was extremely dangerous. And the fact that they had taken in the survivors from the two tribes who lost the war made it even more dangerous.
From the perspective of those survivors, Zaryusu, who had fought in the war, was without a doubt a hateful enemy. Still, for the upcoming fight, Dragon Tusk was the tribe whose cooperation he needed the most.
“I see… Then I should definitely go with you.”
“What?”
“Is that weird?” The clump of grass rustled.
He couldn’t see her face, so he wasn’t sure what she meant. “I dunno if it’s weird…but it’s dangerous.”
“Is there anywhere that isn’t dangerous right now?”
Zaryusu hesitated. If he mulled it over with a clear head, there were lots of pros to taking her along. But as a male, he didn’t like the idea of taking his crush into certain peril. “I’m not thinking clearly…”
The grass hid her from view, but it seemed like she laughed a little bit.
“…I have a different question. What’s with the getup?”
“It doesn’t look good on me?”
Looking good or not isn’t the issue. It’s bizarre. But would it be better to praise her? Zaryusu wasn’t sure how to respond. After careful consideration, he decided to get on her good side, even though he couldn’t see her expression. “I guess it looks…good?”
“Yeah, right!” she snapped.
There was probably nothing Zaryusu could have done to not feel disheartened in that moment.
“I just can’t take the sunlight, so I usually wear this when I go out.”
“I see…”
“Oh, but I didn’t get your answer. Will you let me go with you?”
It was pointless to say what he thought, and having her along would probably work to his advantage in forming the alliance. Maybe she had proposed it because she thought so, too. In that case, he didn’t have any more objections. “Okay. Lend me your strength, Crusch.”
She looked thrilled from the bottom of her heart. “Got it, Zaryusu. You can count on me.”
“Are you ready to go?”
“Of course. I packed my bag and everything.”
Now that she mentioned it, there was a lump on her back under the grass. It smelled like fresh herbs, a little pungent. As a druid, she probably had techniques that used medicinal herbs, so she must have brought some.
“Zaryusu, you look sleepy.”
“Oh, uh, I am…just a little bit. Between this and that, I haven’t really slept much in the past couple of days.”
A white hand suddenly extended from under her grass clothes. “Here. It’s a rikiriko nut. Try chewing it with the shell on.”
Zaryusu took the brown nut out of her hand and unhesitatingly popped it into his mouth. A bitterness radiated out of it and took the edge off his tiredness, but he couldn’t really say he felt awake. As he kept chewing, however, the flavor suddenly exploded across his tongue. It made his breath smell, too. “Mph! How refreshing! It really gets into your sinuses.” He inadvertently reacted in his brother’s trademark way.
“Shuu-shuu,” Crusch laughed at him. “You’re not sleepy anymore, right? But that doesn’t mean you’re not tired, so don’t overdo it! You should take a break when you can!”
Satisfied by the fresh, cool feeling in his mouth and nose, Zaryusu nodded. “Then I’ll take a nap on Rororo at some point.”
Without further ado, he climbed up Rororo’s back. Crusch followed a moment later. Rororo glared at Zaryusu, none too happy with the strange sensation of grass creeping along his body, but Zaryusu managed to soothe him.
“Okay, let’s go! It’s not very stable, so hold on to me.”
“Got it!”
She wrapped her arms around him, and the prickly grass tickled.
“…” This feeling wasn’t quite what he’d expected, and he frowned.
“What’s the matter?”
“Eh, it’s nothing. Let’s go. Okay, Rororo, we’re counting on you.”
“What am I so happy about?” Hearing Crusch’s excited voice behind him, Zaryusu smiled in spite of himself as they swayed along.
2
Conquered by its new ruler, the Tove Woodlands were filled with silence—because every living thing held its breath, frightened by the new king.
But this one place was different.
The sounds of trees being felled and then transported filled the area. Heavy iron machines—golems reminiscent of heavy machinery—carried the trees to an area of huge wooden buildings under construction. The structures seemed far from completion. The site was quite big, but there were surprisingly few buildings actually standing.
Working there were golems and undead. Most of the undead were elder liches wearing eye-catching crimson robes. Each of them had a nine-inch demon—a brown-skinned imp with bat wings—perched on one shoulder. They held their pointed poison tails up to keep them out of the elder liches’ way.
One of the working elder liches unrolled a piece of paper and gave orders to a golem in transit. The golem stopped as ordered, and the lich looked back and forth between the part it’d been building and the paper, cocking its head. Eventually it spoke to the imp on its shoulder.
After listening to what the elder lich had to say, the imp expressed its understanding and flapped up into the sky.
Its movements weren’t very elegant, but it soared into the air and scanned the site with its goggling eyes. Soon it found the person it was looking for and immediately glided down to meet her.
It was one of the Great Tomb of Nazarick’s guardians of the sixth level, Aura Bella Fiora. She was one of the new rulers of this forest.
The dark-elf girl was using a rolled-up piece of paper in lieu of a megaphone to project her voice. The imp flapped down before her and bowed, and she asked in a familiar way, “Uh-huh. Which team are you from?”
“Mistress Aura, I’m C-3.”
“A C, huh? Okay. Is there some kind of problem again?”
All the workers in this place had letters from A to E, and each team had their own job and location. Aura recalled that Cs were working on the warehouses. Their construction was second furthest along among the different buildings.
“There’s an issue with the thickness of the wood being used for construction, so if you could spare a momen—” The imp stopped short because a voice started coming from the iron band around Aura’s wrist.
“It’s time!”
It was the ditzy voice of a cheerful girl, and when Aura heard it, her expression broke. Her ears drooped, and her face flushed with awkward embarrassment. “Okay, understood, Lady BubblingTeapot!” she responded energetically to the band on her wrist.
“It’s lunchtime. Let’s call it good for this morning.”
There were almost no monsters working there that required food. Actually, Aura was wearing a Ring of Sustenance, so she didn’t need to eat, drink, or sleep, either. But her master had kindly told her, “Make sure you take a proper break!”
“So sorry, I’m going on break. Could you come back in an hour?”
“Understood. Then please excuse me.” The imp bowed and then noisily took off.
After watching the imp fly back toward the warehouses, Aura stretched her shoulders and looked once again at the band on her wrist—and grinned ear to ear. It had been a reward from her master for a job well done. Of course, as a guardian created by the Supreme Beings, it was only natural to work for them, for her master, and it would be wrong to charge for her service. It was a matter of course. But she just couldn’t refuse when he offered this.
“Eh-heh-heh-heh. I wanna hear Lady BubblingTeapot talk more.” She gently stroked the band. Her caresses may have been even gentler than the ones she gave the magical beasts she controlled.
All the voices the item used came from the Supreme Being who created Aura. Even just hearing it tell her the time sent joy coursing through her entire body. When she heard her little brother, Mare, got a Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown, she’d been a little jealous, but now, she honestly thought she had gotten the better gift.
“Eh-heh-heh-heh-heh.” Her ears sagged, and she polished the band a bit giddily. She nodded in satisfaction as it sparkled in the sunlight. Then she frowned, puzzled. “I wonder why Lord Ainz limited the ways I can use it.” He’d given her several orders, such as Don’t set an alarm at 7:21 and then 19:19. “Maybe I should ask… Eh, I can’t do that!”
Noticing the numbers on the band, she rushed off.
She ran to a maid.
The forty-one maids who worked in the Great Tomb of Nazarick were grotesques—homunculi—but on the outside they looked like beautiful women. This one, however, was different.
Her head was a dog’s, and a line like a scar ran down the middle of her face, along with marks that looked like the remains of stitches. It was as if her head had been split right in half and sewn—though it seemed impossible—back together. Her name was Pestonia S. Puppydog. She was the head of Nazarick’s maids and a high-level priest.
“As you requested, I’ve brought you a hamburger. On the side you have pickles and fries with the skins on. And for your beverage, cola…woof.”
During the brief pause before the “woof,” Aura had a hunch she’d forgotten her signature noise, but she didn’t say anything. The drool-worthy aroma was making her too hungry. Even though her ring rendered eating unnecessary, it wasn’t like she couldn’t, and eating made her happy—especially something that tickled her nose with such a tasty aroma.
“The total effects of your meal are—”
“Ah, I’m okay; I don’t need to hear that. I didn’t order it for the ability boosts.”
“Understood, woof.”
Pestonia went to the food cart that was emanating delicious smells at her side.
“Lu-unch, lu-unch!”
Listening to Aura’s food song, Pestonia lifted the cover of a silver tray.
“Ooh!” Eyes glued on her meal, Aura mentioned something she remembered. “A-7 ground beef isn’t bad, but I like a mix of beef and pork better. I wonder if you can make three-patty burgers of that.”
“I’ll tell the chef, woof.”
“Great, thanks!”
Aura grabbed the tray and walked off with a smile on her face.
3
A clump of plants peeked around Zaryusu’s shoulder as he watched the Dragon Tusk village rise in front of them. It went without saying that it was Crusch. Her hands moved, and the grass covering her head parted to reveal the face Zaryusu found so beautiful.
“Are you really planning on riding right in? Are you trying to start a fight?”
“No, the opposite. The Dragon Tusk tribe prioritizes strength. If I get off Rororo now, there might be trouble—I could end up in a fight before I reach the chief. Rororo is a great deterrence against that.”
As they proceeded, several warriors on their guard here and there throughout the village, weapons in hand, pierced them with their eyes alone.
Reacting to the hostility, Rororo let out a faint, low cry. Despite the warning, Zaryusu had him continue advancing.
If he went any farther, there would be a fight. Once the air crackled with tension, Zaryusu finally stopped Rororo and dismounted. Crusch came down a moment later.
The sharp gazes of several soldiers targeted the pair with palpable pressure. The sentiment wasn’t simple hostility but already in the realm of killer intent.
Crusch, seeming a bit overwhelmed, stopped moving. She may have had advanced ability as a druid, but she rarely had to bear the brunt of an encounter as a warrior.
Instead, Zaryusu took a single step forward. He shielded Crusch with half his body and raised his voice. “I am Zaryusu Shasha, and I come on behalf of the Green Claw tribe. I want to speak with your chief!” His strong voice subdued their murderous attitudes, and the Dragon Tusk warriors seemed a bit overawed, and their stances wavered.
Then Crusch raised her voice. “I am Crusch Lulu, acting chief of the Red Eye tribe. I also came to meet with your chief.” Hers was a quiet voice, but it contained the confidence and awareness of a tribal leader. She’d been inspired by the proud male’s voice, and the little lady lizardman who had been there a moment before had vanished.
“I’ll say it again! We came to see your chief! Where is he?”
Just then the atmosphere shifted violently. It was almost as if emotions had taken on physical shape and assaulted Zaryusu and Crusch.
Rororo’s four heads immediately started writhing. He opened his jaws wide and let out threatening growls, moving his heads to intimidate. The lizardmen shrank back for a moment as if frightened at the huge hydra’s continued high-pitched cries.
“…You don’t really need to protect me.”
“I don’t intend to. You came here of your own free will. But the one who should get this kind of glare, as the one responsible for the breaking up of their tribes, is me.”
More warriors gradually gathered by the entrance to the village. They all had magnificent physiques and faint scars in their scales. They had probably made it through some intense battles. But Zaryusu could tell their chief was not among them.
They were all mere warriors. There was no one with the dignity of his elder brother or the extraordinariness of Crusch, no one with the impact of a chief.
The only sound breaking the silence was Rororo’s warning growls. Not a single lizardman there relaxed their guard. Then…
“Ah!” Crusch gasped quietly. But Zaryusu didn’t lose his composure when the lizardman they were waiting for appeared—he’d sensed the immensely powerful creature walking toward them before he’d seen him.
Still, he couldn’t help being a little shocked when he finally came into view.
To describe this lizardman in a word: monstrous.
He was huge, over seven and a half feet tall. That alone wasn’t enough to make him grotesque, but there were reasons to use that expression. First, his right arm was big and thick. It was the same strange appearance that fiddler crabs, with their one large claw, had. No, his left arm wasn’t skinny. His left arm was about the size of Zaryusu’s. His right arm was just bizarrely thick, and it wasn’t puffed up due to disease or deformity, but muscle. He was missing his ring and pinkie fingers on his left hand. His mouth seemed to have been sliced open with something around to the back of his head. His tail was smashed flat, less like a lizardman’s and more like an alligator’s. But more eye-catching than anything else was the brand on his chest. The design was different from Zaryusu’s, but its meaning was the same: He was a traveler.
He took a close look at Zaryusu and Crusch—and there came a sound like pieces of dry wood bumping together. The grotesque lizardman’s sharp teeth rubbed against one another. Apparently he was laughing.
“So you made it, huh, bearer of Frost Pain?” His deep, heavy voice was a good fit for his odd looks. He was probably just talking normally, but he sounded daunting.
“Pleased to meet you. I’ve come from the Green Claw tribe an—”
The lizardman waved a hand, as if to say, Not necessary, not necessary. “How about just your names?”
“…Zaryusu Shasha. And this is Crusch Lulu.”
“Is that a…plant monster? Well, you did bring a hydra, so it’s not so strange that you’d have another pet monster.”
“…No.”
Crusch began taking off her clothes, but the massive lizardman did his not necessary, not necessary hand wave again. “Don’t take that joke seriously, ya goobs…”
“!”
He gave Crusch a bored look as she rustled her grass and then turned to Zaryusu. “So, I guess I’ll ask why you’re here.”
“Before that, could I ask your name?”
“Yeah, I’m the chief of the Dragon Tusk tribe, Zenbel Gugu. Call me Zenbel!” he said with a toothy grin.
Zaryusu had known this one was chief when he saw him, but the reality of a traveler in charge was still surprising. On the other hand, it made sense. There was no way a male like this could be just a traveler. When he appeared, the hostility from the others vanished. He was a male with that much authority, as well as military might and unifying force.
“You can call me Zaryusu, too. So…Zenbel. I imagine that a strange monster showed up here lately?”
“Yeah, the messenger from the Great One.”
“If it came, then that makes this eas—”
Zenbel lifted a hand to pause Zaryusu mid-sentence.
“I have an idea what you’re going to say, but we only trust the strong. Take up your sword.” The split mouth of this huge lizardman, Zenbel Gugu, chief of the Dragon Tusk tribe, bared his sharp teeth good-humoredly.
“What?!” Crusch was the only one to gasp in surprise. The warriors in the area and Zaryusu appeared to approve.
“…How straightforward. Chief of the Dragon Tusk! That’s a clear, concise judgment with no time wasting.”
“And you’re a brilliant messenger. I guess I should have expected that, since you have Frost Pain, though?”
•
The strongest gets selected as chief. For a lizardman, this was utterly natural. But for issues that impact the continuation of the tribe, is that okay? Shouldn’t many people consult one another and discuss things from different angles before deciding? Crusch thought these things—and then found such logic mysterious.
Everyone looking on, both males and females, agreed with their chief’s decision. Until recently she would have said, That’s the way I make decisions, too.
So why am I doubting it now? Where had that doubt come from?
Am I under some kind of magic attack? That couldn’t be. She was fairly confident she wouldn’t lose to any lizardman on the marsh with her magic skills. That pride told her that it wasn’t any mystical art.
Crusch moved her eyes to look at the two males.
Zaryusu and Zenbel.
Next to each other they looked like a child and an adult.
Of course, as a caster, she knew physique wouldn’t decide everything, but seeing this much of a gap between them made her heart shriek, I hate this!
I hate this? I hate the idea of them—no, him—fighting? She reached out within herself to try and understand this peculiar feeling that had come up in her heart. Why am I so against it? Why don’t I want them to fight?
There was one answer. She didn’t even have to think about it.
She smiled faintly, a little awkwardly, and with a bit of a sneer. You just have to admit it, Crusch. You don’t want Zaryusu to fight because you’re scared he could get hurt…or even die. In other words: that.
Participants in these types of fights almost never died. But if they almost never died, that meant that rarely, they did. If things got too heated, someone could easily be killed. I don’t want to lose my husband by making him fight like that, thought the single female.
So in her heart, she’d accepted Zaryusu’s proposal.
No male has ever treated me like that… Not that that means I should be a pushover… What do they call that? “Easy”? Ahh, I feel kinda…happy but sad… Oh, I don’t know!
Having quietly acknowledged her emotions, she went over to Zaryusu, who was warming up, and tapped him on the shoulder. “Do you need anything else to get ready?”
“Nope. I’m good to go.”
She tapped his shoulder again.
It was a sturdy shoulder.
Right around the age she began to understand the world around her, she had started down the path to becoming a priest. Along the way, she had touched many males’ bodies during prayers, applying medicine, and casting spells. But she had the feeling she’d touched Zaryusu far more than the rest of them put together.
So this is Zaryusu’s body…
He was starting to get excited about the fight, and his muscles were bulging. It felt very masculine to her.
“…Is something wrong?” Apparently he thought it odd that Crusch hadn’t moved her hand.
“Huh?! Uhh, er…priest’s blessing!”
“Aha. The spirits of your ancestors will help me out even though I’m from a different tribe?”
“The spirits of our ancestors aren’t so narrow-minded. Good luck!” She removed her hand from the shoulder of the male she loved, prayed for his victory, and apologized to the spirits of her ancestors for the lie.
Zenbel was similarly prepping, and in his right hand, he gripped a huge spear—a steel halberd of almost ten feet that a normal lizardman wouldn’t have been able to use without both hands.
Then he—casually—swung it.
The sweeping motion displaced enough air that Crusch could feel the wind where she was.
“Can you—? No. Will you be okay?”
“Hmm, I’m planning on it one way or another.”
She’d been planning to ask if he could win, but she stopped herself. Zaryusu was fighting because he knew he had to win.
In that case, he wouldn’t lose. She’d known him only a day, traveled with him for only half of one, but still, she knew: This male was worth falling for.
“Okayyy, are you ready, bearer of Frost Pain… Ahh, Zaryusu.”
“Everything’s fine. I’m ready anytime.” He casually turned from Crusch and advanced into the circle that was to serve as the arena.
“Ahh,” Crusch sighed, unable to help but watch him as he walked away.
The warmth in Zaryusu’s shoulder where Crusch had touched him for so long—although it probably wasn’t really that long—was fading.
The duel he was going into was a simplified version of the type used to decide a chief. Since it was a solo fight, it was against the rules to have a third party cast spells.
When the warmth made his heart buzz, when she didn’t take her hand away, he thought maybe she had cast defensive magic. But there was no way that Crusch, as acting chief of her tribe, didn’t know the rules.
So if it wasn’t magic, then why did it get him this excited?
Is it because I’m a male? Is it that I want to impress a female? Brother once called me a dead tree…but apparently that’s not the case.
Zaryusu entered the circle of lizardmen, took Frost Pain from his hip, and lifted it up. Summoned by his will, a frosty whiteness clung to the blade.
The surrounding lizardmen gasped.
They were survivors of the Sharp Edge tribe who knew Frost Pain’s former owner. And others had seen what Frost Pain could do.
When Zenbel saw Zaryusu invoke the power only a true owner of Frost Pain could, his vicious expression cracked into delight—the delight of a growling animal with its teeth bared.
“I don’t want anyone to get hurt too badly,” Zaryusu declared coldly in response to the fierce aura coming off the lizardman before him.
At this provocation, the emotions of the warriors in the crowd surged in a bad direction, but the sharp slap of something striking water and the extraordinarily huge spray that followed immediately calmed them down.
Zenbel had hit the marsh with the tip of his spear. “Oh…? Then don’t let me admit defeat. Listen up, you guys! If I lose, this guy’s your chief! No objections, no arguments, and no whining!”
They couldn’t have accepted it, but none of the warriors argued. If Zaryusu did kill Zenbel, they would probably grit their teeth and obey.
“Okay, now we’re ready. Come at me like you mean to kill me. I’m probably one of the strongest guys you’ve ever fought.”
“You might be right… Got it. And if I die…” He flicked his eyes behind him to Crusch.
“Sure, I’ll get your female home safe.”
“…She’s not mine yet, but okay.”
“Heh, but you’re majorly going for her, right? That plant monster! Is she that worth it?”
“She really is.”
They ignored the lizardman shrinking into a ball and cradling her head behind them.
“I’d like to see. If I win, maybe I’ll strip her for a peek before I send her home.”
Up until a moment ago, Zaryusu had been pumped just for the fight, but now a new energy flowed through him.
“…Well, now I’ve got a really good reason not to lose. I’m not showing Crusch to the likes of you!”
“You’re crazy about her!”
“Yeah, absolutely nuts.”
They ignored the cringing lizardman, shaking her head no, no, as some of the other females tried to talk to her.
“Ha!” Zenbel laughed, tremendously happy. “Then you’d better win! If you lose, it’s all over!”
“Oh, I plan on it.”
Zaryusu and Zenbel glared at each other as if to say they were done chatting.
“Let’s go?”
“Come at me!”
A short exchange, but neither one moved.
When the spectators started to get impatient, Zaryusu was the first one to inch forward. Despite the fact that they were in a wetter part of the marsh, he made no noise.
Zenbel just waited for him, immobile.
The moment Zaryusu got within a certain distance, a roar whooshed by in front of him, and he jumped back. It was Zenbel’s spear. There was no technique—he just swung it around. Still, that was what made him so ferocious.
Zaryusu prepared to charge, and Zenbel held his spear at the ready. He was swinging that huge thing around with just his right arm. With a motion like a whirlwind, he was back in his stance immediately after.
Zaryusu wondered something. To test it out, he moved back into range—and the power of a violent gale swiped at him. He met the shaft with Frost Pain, and a tremendous shock went through his arm—and his body left the ground.
Zenbel had sent a grown lizardman flying with the strength of just one arm. That arm was truly beyond the realm of common sense.
The air buzzed with excitement.
Witnessing the overwhelming muscular strength of their chief, the warriors roared.
Zaryusu retreated, splish-splash, using his tail to keep balance. Shaking out his numb hand, he narrowed his eyes slightly. What…the heck? He stared, guard up, at the giant in front of him. Seriously, though, what? He’s so… weak.
He was tremendously fast. Zaryusu would get knocked back if he took blows with his sword. But that was it. Zaryusu wasn’t scared. Zenbel was just swinging his spear around like a kid with a stick—no real technique. The problem was whether this was really all. With that arm, he seemed like he would have a more precise way to move.
Is he not fighting seriously to get me to be careless?
Zaryusu sensed that was not the case. He was on guard against the unknown, reconsidering his strategy, when Zenbel, who hadn’t taken a single step, asked him with a grin, “What’s wrong? Can’t get Frost Pain to work?”
That jovial expression was probably meant as provocation. Zaryusu wasn’t going to respond to that.
“I once lost a fight with the guy who used to own Frost Pain.”
Zaryusu remembered. He knew the male Zenbel was talking about: the chief of the now defunct Sharp Edge tribe, someone Zaryusu had killed.
Zaryusu’s focus had been pinpointing Zenbel, but now he expanded it to include their surroundings. In the sea of hostility, the loathing of the Sharp Edge survivors was especially intense.
“These wounds on my left hand are from that fight.” Zenbel waved the hand with two missing fingers as evidence. “Maybe if you use the power he beat me with, you can win!”
“You think so?” Zaryusu replied with absolute cool.
The power was definitely strong. It could be used only three times a day, but it brought victory more often than not. The reason Zaryusu had defeated its previous owner was that he had already used it three times. If Zaryusu had faced the attack back then, he probably would have been killed.
But there was no way a guy who knew Frost Pain’s power would want to be on the receiving end. Zaryusu tensed up. I don’t know… I’m not getting anywhere like this, though. I guess I should charge. Having decided, he leaped at Zenbel at double his previous speed.
And the halberd intercepted him with tremendous force.
Zaryusu didn’t dodge, but took it with Frost Pain. Everyone watching thought he would get knocked back again.
Raised up, Frost Pain clashed with the halberd—and simply parried.
He didn’t even have to use a martial art technique. Zenbel was handling his spear like a child at play. At that level, it was a cinch for Zaryusu to parry any attack, no matter how heavy.
Zenbel’s eyes opened wide in surprise—no, admiration.
That was the moment Zaryusu closed in like a gale-force wind. Zenbel could try to bring his halberd around, but he’d be too slow. Even if he had the strength to completely stop the spear and bring it back, it would take a couple of moments—and that was plenty of time for Zaryusu to get in close.
Frost Pain slashed Zenbel’s flesh…
…And fresh blood flew.
A huge cheer went up, along with the tiny shriek of one female. The one scattering blood and retreating in escape was not Zenbel. The one with two bleeding scrapes on his face was Zaryusu.
Unlike his previous stance, Zenbel came charging after Zaryusu, not about to let him get away. And he attacked with the same thing he’d used to gouge at him a moment before—his claws.
Frost Pain clashed with them, and a hard metallic sound rang out. A beat later, the halberd, no longer in Zenbel’s hand, made a noisy splash.
“Grrrrahhhh!” Exhaling at length, Zenbel attacked once again with his huge arm as he charged.
Compared to the childish way he handled his spear, these strikes with his hand were masterful. Now Zaryusu had all the pieces to understand.
Zenbel wasn’t a warrior—he was a monk who employed a special energy called chi to transform his body into a weapon.
Zaryusu met the hand with Frost Pain.
Lizardman claws were harder and sharper than human nails, but they weren’t so hard that metal would ring when it hit them. Yes, this was a monk ability that hardened teeth and nails: Natural Iron Weapon. It was said that a monk’s fist at the limit of its power could dent adamantite, the hardest metal, but from the feel of Zenbel’s, he hadn’t reached that level—maybe steel at best. Still, Zaryusu couldn’t underestimate those claws if they were evenly matched with Frost Pain, one of the lizardmen’s Four Great Treasures.
They exchanged a few blows.
Zenbel attacked with his hand, and Zaryusu slashed with Frost Pain. They evaded each other’s attacks, then clashed, and a short pause occurred.
“Ha-ha! You’re still alive?!” Zenbel licked the blood and scraps of meat sticking to his fingers.
Likewise, Zaryusu’s tongue, longer than a human’s, came out and licked the red liquid flowing from the scrapes on the part of his face that would be a cheek on a human. He was glad he’d been able to just barely dodge the attack meant to pierce his eyes. He had wounds, but they weren’t deep. He still had plenty of fight left in him.
While Zaryusu thanked the spirits of his ancestors—and I guess Crusch’s might have helped, too—Zenbel complained. “You knowww…if you don’t use that move and I beat you, it’ll feel like you were going easy on me.” He balled up his fists and bumped them together a few times in front of his chest.
“Sorry, but I’m not planning on using it.”
“Hrmm. No saying you weren’t fighting seriously after you lose!”
“Now that you’ve sparred with me, do you really think I’m the type to say something like that?”
“…No, I don’t. Sorry, I didn’t mean that. But if you’re not gonna use it, then I’m comin’ for ya!”
Voom! With a rush of air, he kicked at Zaryusu with one of his thick legs.
Zaryusu acted without hesitation.
He dodged the foot and immediately slashed with Frost Pain, but the sword was repelled with a metallic sound.
His eyes widened in admiration.
If a barehanded attack was blocked with a sword, the attacker would get injured. That was logic. But when a monk used chi, they altered common sense.
This was Iron Skin, a special power that made flesh hard as steel whenever anything came in contact with it by surrounding the body with chi. Like with Natural Iron Weapon, a trained user could fortify himself.
Zenbel repelled the magical sword. That spoke to how much training he’d done as a monk. But Zaryusu was sure of his victory.
There wasn’t such a huge gap in their combat skills—Zenbel had just been at a disadvantage since the beginning.
There was an overwhelming amount of attack types: kicking, tail whipping, punching, clawing…
Each of the physical attacks Zenbel unleashed was fast and heavy. Faced with that, it seemed, sure enough, like Zaryusu had quit attacking and reached his limit just defending.
Chain after chain of hits.
If Zaryusu hadn’t been able to block all the weighty, destructive blows, he would have been done for. The surrounding lizardman onlookers cheered, confident their chief would win with his continuous attacks.
Now and then, Zenbel’s claws grazed Zaryusu’s body, and the flesh that should have been protected by his hard scales was easily broken. Blood beaded and flowed. These were definitely not minor wound —and he had so many they were impossible to count. Zaryusu’s life was like a candle in the wind; it would be no surprise if he surrendered at any moment. The lizardmen had smiles on their faces, delighted at their champion’s victory.
But the chief himself felt differently.
Each time one of his strikes was repelled, he felt victory slipping further away, and he couldn’t completely suppress his anxiety.
Frost Pain’s blade was enchanted so that it could deal additional chill damage when it sliced into an opponent. As a secondary effect, it had the power to send some chill damage over to an opponent when weapons clashed. In other words, just his hand and the sword bumping together caused him to be weakened slightly. His hands and feet were numb, and little by little, his movements were slowing down.
Crap. I lost so quickly last time that…I didn’t realize it had this power! It wasn’t just that one move! Makes sense for one of the Four Great Treasures!
It was precisely because Zaryusu understood these effects that he had chosen to fight defensively—or to put it another way, he chose to fight in a way he was certain to deal damage. This was also why he wasn’t evading Zenbel’s attacks.
He had chosen the cautious path to victory. That prudence made him Zenbel’s greatest enemy.
When Zaryusu leaped at him, Zenbel unleashed a special move. From the moment the Green Claw tribesman blocked it, Zenbel’s chances looked pretty low.
He felt he was attacking an impregnable fortress on his own. Ahh, shit. I can’t get him…but still! I was waiting for this time to come! For so long! A male Zenbel had once fought flickered through his mind. He hadn’t been as strong back then. He’d kept training in order to beat him someday. When he heard his adversary had been killed, frustration and regret overcame his heart, but he still didn’t rest.
It was all for this day.
As chief of his tribe, he couldn’t just abandon everything and go off to battle. That was why he hadn’t been able to hide his joy when he heard the owner of Frost Pain had showed up in the village.
It wasn’t right to end a fight he’d anticipated so much this simply.
He punched, he kicked. He gradually lost feeling in his hands and feet, and his chi couldn’t reach. Even then, he didn’t stop.
He’s strong! Even stronger than the one back then!
He figured this male must have ceaselessly trained just like he had.
So their initial gap just never closed. Of course, he could make the excuse that he had lost due to Frost Pain, but he didn’t want to say anything that pathetic. That’s right! That’s the owner of Frost Pain for you! The strongest lizardman male!
He didn’t stop attacking, but at the same time, with the clearheaded part of his brain, he praised Zaryusu for blocking his kicks with Frost Pain.
Get wounded, bleed, get wounded again.
Keeping a close eye on the fierce back-and-forth, Crusch had seen with her exceptional druid abilities which direction the battle would lean in. Amazing… He must have been able to tell right from the start of the battle.
She was blown away by Zaryusu’s exceptional warrior abilities.
A cheer went up.
It was for Zenbel, who seemed to be overwhelming Zaryusu with his repeated attacks. The surrounding lizardmen didn’t notice, but the movements of his arms and legs were growing gradually slower.
Zaryusu was strong. Crusch could say that with confidence.
Most lizardmen fought by putting pressure on their opponents with their robust physical abilities, while Zaryusu—well, and Zenbel—fought with technique. And Zaryusu had Frost Pain to back up his skills. For that reason, the current gap between them was, in large part, Frost Pain. But she could also sense, as the obvious truth, that that wasn’t everything.
Would an average warrior be able to give Zenbel a run for his money like this with Frost Pain? The answer was no. Zenbel wasn’t such a simple opponent as that. The weapon was powerful, but being able to draw out its abilities completely made Zaryusu a first-rate warrior.
His greatest talent was how quickly he could read his opponent. The reason he had been able to dodge the blow when Zenbel had abandoned his spear was that he had been carefully reading him. He had foreseen that Zenbel had a trump card, that the spear was a bluff.
The knowledge of the fish preserves, his combat technique—how much had he gained on that journey that he branded himself to go on?
Before she knew it, Crusch had stopped questioning Zaryusu’s victory. She just watched his profile, not with worry but with something else buzzing in her chest. “He’s one amazing male…”
The duel was so impressive that time flew by for everyone watching. The combatants themselves, though, felt differently. Their labored breathing was an unmistakable sign that the physical and mental toll went beyond just the time they spent.
That Zaryusu didn’t lose his will to fight despite bleeding from wounds all over his body was commendable in its bravery. There had never been someone who lasted so long in a fight against their chief. That’s how the surrounding lizardmen felt.
His victory imminent—or so almost everyone thought—Zenbel wordlessly broke his stance. They were sure he would proclaim himself the winner, and as they held their breaths in anticipation, Zenbel raised his voice—and did the exact opposite. “I lose!”
Their chief’s victory should have been right there. So why was he proclaiming his loss?
The only one to foresee the result, Crusch, bustled into the circle. “Are you all right?”
Zaryusu sighed heavily, dropping the sword he’d been clutching, and answered in a voice oozing with exhaustion. “Well, none of these wounds will kill me… I don’t think they’ll be a problem for the upcoming fight, either.”
“I’ll cast some healing magic on you.” Crusch sighed and adjusted her grass clothes with a rustle to reveal her face.
Zaryusu felt a gradual embrace around him—not the hot pain of the wounds carved into his body from a moment ago but a pleasant warmth. Giving in to the feeling of health flowing into him, he turned to face the huge lizardman he’d just challenged in that life-or-death battle.
Zenbel was surrounded by the members of his tribe, explaining what had happened, what Zaryusu’s strategy had been.
Crusch announced after two casts that she was done healing him, “I guess that’s it,” and Zaryusu looked down at his body.
There was still coagulated blood sticking to him, but his wounds were completely healed. When he moved, there was a strange lingering, pulling feeling, but it didn’t seem like any cuts would reopen. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Crusch giggled. It exposed her beautiful pearly fangs.
“You’re so pretty…”
“What?!” Her tail jerked and slapped the water.
Then neither of them said anything.
Crusch was silent because she was wondering how this male could say stuff like that with a straight face. She wasn’t used to being complimented, so to her, he said too many things that were bad for her heart.
Meanwhile Zaryusu didn’t understand why Crusch had clammed up. The worry he might have said or done something wrong crossed his mind. Honestly, he’d thought females would never have anything to do with his life, so he didn’t know how to act. It may not have seemed like it, but he was doing the best he could as well.
“Hey, hey, you’re gonna make me jealous, dammit!”
They both turned to look at the owner of the voice, Zenbel. Their perfectly synchronized movements made him falter momentarily.
“Uhhh… White one, you’re not gonna heal me, too?”
He acted normal after seeing her white albino face. But she remembered her impression when she’d seen him for the first time and understood. I guess that makes sense?
“Yes, yes…but are you sure it’s okay? Your tribe’s priests won’t get to do it, then.”
“Yeah, it’s fine, it’s fine. More importantly, it kinda really hurts. It’s like I’m frozen solid. Can you hurry it up?”
“Only ’cause you said to. Tell your priests that!”
“Okay, I forced you. Please.”
Crusch sighed and started casting healing magic.
And suddenly Zaryusu, although he couldn’t be sure, felt like the number of hostile gazes decreased. And, though only a few, some even turned friendly.
“Okay, all done.”
She’d cast more times on Zenbel than she had on Zaryusu. His wounds didn’t look that bad, but apparently they’d been deep.
“Hmm! So you’re more talented than our priests!”
“Thanks. But I don’t know if I should… No, thanks.”
“Okay, both our wounds are healed up, so I guess this is sudden, but do you mind if we jump right into business?”
“Yeah! Let’s hear what you have to say—is what I was going to lead with, but…” Zenbel paused with a grin. “Alcohol.”
Both Zaryusu and Crusch were nonplussed, like they didn’t understand what he’d just said to them.
“Gotta have tough discussions over drinks. You get me?”
Negotiations went better once the parties knew who was stronger. Zaryusu could understand risking their lives to figure that out. That was the lizardman way of life. But he couldn’t understand a drinking party. The Green Claw tribe didn’t have that custom.
What was the point of fighting a life-or-death battle if this was what came next?
“No, I don’t!” Zaryusu, tormented by exhaustion, gave a quiet, raw answer with a discouraged look on his face. Immediately afterward, a surge of regret swept over him. We haven’t even formed the alliance yet, and I just reacted to this tribe’s chief like a little kid. Crusch was giving him a strange look, too.
Zaryusu had no relationship experience, so he had no way to know that Crusch’s reaction was one of curiosity and tenderness at having discovered another side of the object of her affection.
“If we drink, we won’t be able to think straight. That’s no good,” Zaryusu hurriedly restated, but Zenbel didn’t seem to be bothered.
“Hey, hey, hey! You’re a traveler, right? Anyone around here looking for knowledge would go to the dwarves, am I right?”
“No, I didn’t do that. I visited the people of the forest.”
“Oh. Then remember this: Friends become best friends by drinking together. That’s a lesson from the dwarves! We don’t have much time, but we have to speak frankly, right, Zaryusu Shasha?”
“I see… Understood, Zenbel Gugu.”
“Okay, then! We’re gonna drink tonight! Bring it out! Let’s get this party started!”
•
In a nearly six-and-a-half-foot bonfire stand, set on dry land, crimson flames blazed so high that they seemed to reach for the night sky itself. That giant red light kept the darkness away.
Placed front and center next to the bonfire stand was a pot over three feet high with a mouth over two and a half feet in diameter. The stink of fermentation coming from it drifted on the breeze. Dozens of lizardmen took turns ladling liquid out of the pot, but no matter how many times they scooped, the alcohol showed no signs of running out. This was, like Zaryusu’s Frost Pain, one of the lizardmen’s Four Great Treasures, the Giant Wine Pot. It produced a limitless amount of alcohol, but the flavor was not so great. To a human who knew even a little bit about alcohol, it would be frown inducing, but for the lizardmen, this was high-grade stuff. That was why the drinkers kept coming.
A little ways removed from the vessel was an extremely quiet area, and it took only a glance to see why. Several drunk lizardmen lay facedown on the ground. They’d collapsed there and not budged an inch. This was the disposal area for totally wasted lizardmen.
Crusch, having taken off her clothes, was walking through the area, keeping her eyes on the ground—watching out for the tails of the lizardmen lying around. Her footsteps were steady, and she didn’t seem drunk, but it was impossible to say she wasn’t drunk at all—her tail, just her tail, was cheerfully twisting around with a mind of its own. It curled up and stretched, pointed up and drooped. It was hyper like a little kid.
In reality, it felt like a fresh breeze was blowing through Crusch’s heart. It may have been partially the alcohol, but that wasn’t all. The freedom helped.
It was her first time ever walking among a large group of people with her albino body exposed. Zenbel had a strange appearance, too, so although some were surprised by her at first, soon she was blending right in.
She carried food in both hands as she walked, feeling her heart sing. She walked toward where Zaryusu and Zenbel were sitting cross-legged on the ground drinking together.
They were using shells of a fruit similar to coconuts as cups. The liquid filling them to the brim was clear, but that fermented smell hung thickly in the air. Between them was a large plate of raw fish to snack on.
Zenbel grinned at Crusch as she walked over. “Hey, plant monster!”
“…Are you ever gonna stop calling me that?” She’d already taken off the outfit, but no matter how many times she protested, he would probably tease her forever. Crusch decided not to put up a futile resistance. “So did you finish talking?”
Zaryusu and Zenbel nodded to each other.
“Pretty much.”
They’d wanted to talk alone, so they’d asked Crusch to leave. Their bluntness about it had left her no choice, so she went to get food, but really, she had wanted to participate in the conversation. If it was about the upcoming war, she was involved, too.
She wanted to hear a summary, even if they didn’t tell her anything awkward, but instead—
“Just male stuff.” Zenbel indifferently cut off that possibility.
Her offense showed plainly on her face, but since she had no other choice, she changed the subject. “So what’re you going to do? Are you going to join the alliance and fight with us?”
“Huh? Yeah, of course we’re gonna fight. We were gonna fight even if you guys didn’t show up!” He emitted a sound like pieces of dry wood bumping together.
“Wow. You’re awfully war-crazy, huh?”
“Don’t compliment me—I’ll blush.” Paying no attention to Crusch’s disgust, he nonchalantly asked her for a favor. “Oh, right, plant monster. You gotta convince Zaryusu. I told him a zillion times he should be chief, but he won’t listen.”
Zaryusu twisted his expression into a dead-tired wince. He looked so exhausted she could tell they’d gone over this repeatedly while she was gone.
“He can’t do that! He’s from another tribe, and he’s a tr—” She was going to say “traveler,” but she remembered Zenbel was, too, and changed the subject. “Why did you want to go traveling?”
“Huh? It was just such a shock to lose to the guy who used to own Frost Pain! I wanted to get stronger. And I wanted to find out what else was out there. That’s why I became a traveler.”
Next to him, Zaryusu’s shoulders suddenly drooped. Crusch remembered the stories of his travels that she’d heard on their way over.
What had kept Zaryusu going during his journey were his resolution, determination, and sense of mission for his tribe. He must have thought this male, who was a traveler like him, had felt similarly…but Zenbel didn’t seem to have a shred of those sentiments.
Crusch put a gentle hand on his shoulder to comfort him. He’s him and you’re you, she thought.
Then she realized that anyone looking at them would probably think they were lovers, and her tail started twisting around wildly. Zaryusu’s went totally crazy, too.
Without thinking, they looked at each other and grinned, blushing.
Zenbel continued in high spirits without paying them any attention. “I thought there’d be some strong guys up on that mountain. ’Cause it’s just so huge! And the dwarves I met there taught me all kinds of things, ya know? They gave me that spear, too. I didn’t think I needed it, but once they said to take it as a symbol of our meeting, I couldn’t really refuse.”
“…Hmm, good for you.” Crusch’s reply was a little careless, or perhaps cold.
“Thanks.”
The sarcasm didn’t even get through.
Crusch, whose good mood had been ruined, knocked back her drink. Her throat grew hot, and once the liquid settled to her stomach, the heat spread throughout her body. Zaryusu drank in the same way.
Then there came an extremely low voice. The quietness of it was so at odds with the lighthearted conversation thus far that for a moment they weren’t even sure who had spoken. “So. Do you think we can win?”
Zaryusu answered in an equally quiet voice, “…I don’t know.”
“Well, yeah, how would you? There’re no sure wins. Actually, if there were some guy shouting about how we could win when we don’t even know the enemy’s strength, I’d punch his lights out. Like, don’t just say whatever, buddy!”
Crusch said nothing to Zenbel as he softly laughed.
“But our opponent’s being careless. Our chances will probably depend on how that plays out.”
They could practically see the question forming in Zenbel’s head, so Crusch stepped in for Zaryusu to explain. “Do you remember what the monster said?”
“Sorry. I was asleep at the time.”
“…But you must have heard from someone.”
“Nn, it was complicated, so I forgot it. Anyhow, if they come to attack us, we just have to beat them at their own game. That’s the important part, right?”
This guy’s useless, said Crusch’s face as she gave up explaining.
Zaryusu picked up where she left off with an annoyed smile. “…This is what he said: Put up a frantic resistance.”
Zenbel’s face twisted into a horrible grimace full of unpredictable emotions. “That pisses me off—that they’re treating us like we’re beneath them from the start.” He let out a dangerous growl. Intense anger and disgust swirled around him.
“Yeah. They’re totally making light of us. That’s how confident they are… They think they have the force to break any resistance of ours, no problem… So we’ll crush that arrogance. We’ll gather the five tribes together and show them the greatest power we can muster. First, we’ll slap ’em upside the head to show them we’re not half-assing it.”
“Ha, sounds good. Now you’re speaking my language.”
As the two males started to get excited about the upcoming battle, Crusch spoke like a bucket of cold water. “I don’t see that many benefits to mutilating their pride. Isn’t it fine to just do enough to prove our worth? If they understand that we’re worth something, maybe they’ll decide not to kill us all.”
“Whoa, whoa, you’d bow your head to these hateful bastards?”
“Hey, Zaryusu… I understand the danger of evacuating, but I’d rather be alive and in chains than dead,” Crusch murmured.
Neither of them could refute her or mock her for having a servile nature.
None of them wanted to get conquered. But there was still more of a future that way than dying in the fight. If they had a future, they still had a chance.
For example, if they shared the fish-farming technology, they could abandon this place and all flee.
Anyone who would order someone to throw away that possibility and die wasn’t fit to rule.
“Listen for a second…”
At Zaryusu’s quiet suggestion, everyone listened to the sounds of happy laughter on the breeze from the banquet.
“If they conquer us, we might not be able to throw parties like this.”
“But maybe we could! Right?”
“I wonder. I doubt it. Those guys seem like they want to enjoy watching us die. I doubt they’ll show any mercy. If they had even a tiny bit of kindness, they wouldn’t come to kill us off for kicks.”
He’s right. Crusch nodded. But still— “What I’m trying to say is…don’t die.”
“Oh, I won’t die! Not until I hear back from you!”
“!”
Crusch and Zaryusu regarded each other seriously beneath the night sky. And they made a promise—
—With the astonished third wheel Zenbel sitting right there.
Intermission
In the meeting room behind him, they were probably already turning to a new issue. But his role in that room was finished, so he had left.
Of course, he had other roles besides report giver. Now he had to perform the various tasks surrounding the resurrections of his comrades and fill in the temporary membership hole by appointing someone new. In other words, his work as the first seat—that is, captain—of the Black Scripture was waiting for him. He also had training and experiments to do. Since the Six Scriptures were secret organizations, he had an undercover life in the theocracy as well.
In his personal life, he also had marriage arrangements to make—with multiple women. Currently there were only three awakened demigods in the Slane Theocracy, so the higher-ups were euphemistically ordering him to leave behind lots of children.
With all those things piled up, he had precious little free time. “Still, I hope they’ll let me relax for today.”
Feeling liberated after the high priest meeting, the highest meeting in the Slane Theocracy, he rotated his shoulder—and a clicking noise caught his attention.
He knew who was making the sound before he saw her. Even among Slane Theocracy citizens, only a few were allowed in here, and if he recalled who wasn’t in the meeting room, the answer was obvious.
As he expected, there was a girl leaning against the wall. Strangely, her longish hair was a different color on each side. One side was a striking silver and the other was so black it seemed to suck everything in. Her eyes were also each different colors. Next to her, a war scythe that resembled a cross spear rested against the wall. She looked so young—probably still in her early teens—but her true age was quite different. She hadn’t changed at all since he’d assumed the first seat of the Black Scripture.
His eyes moved to her ears, hidden by her hair—but then stopped. He knew she hated her ears.
Her glossy lips curled up, like perhaps she had read his thoughts.
She, born a mix of two bloods that was nearly impossible, was the strongest member of the Black Scripture, the additional seat, “No Death–No Life.” She served as the guardian of this sacred place where the armaments of the Five Pillar Gods were laid to rest.
The soft noises came from a toy she was playing with, popularized by the Six Gods and called a rubik-q in the Slane Theocracy.
Her voice reached him, mingled with the clicks. “It’s easy to get one side, but it’s hard to get two, you know?”
It wasn’t very hard for him, but he hesitated to say so and just grinned at her in reply.
It seemed like she didn’t really want a response anyhow, and she continued, not seeming to think anything of his silence, “What the heck happened here that the high priests would meet?”
“I think you’ve already received the report…”
“I haven’t read it,” she replied flatly. “Besides, it’s easier to hear the situation from someone who knows. Was Star Reader–Second Sight’s reading wrong? You sortied to dominate the Catastrophe Dragonlord, and then what?”
Their eyes didn’t meet even once while they spoke. She was focused on her toy the whole time.
“…We lost two men and had one critically injured in a fight with some unknown type of undead similar to a vampire. So we retreated.”
“Who died?”
He didn’t detect even a hint of emotion in her question despite the deaths in her squad. It was like she was hearing a story that had happened in a faroff place. But he didn’t think anything of it. It was an appropriate attitude for her to take.
“Cedran, who was protecting Lady Kaire, and Beaumarchais, who tried to restrain the vampire when it had stopped moving.”
“Giant Shield–Perfect Wall and Godly Realm–Iron Ties, huh? What with the shrine princess of Earth dying in some mysterious explosion and the Black Scripture losing two members…we’re having pretty bad luck. Who got injured?”
“Lady Kaire. It seems like the effect of some curse; her wound wouldn’t heal with magic, so we retreated.”
“So what happened to the vampire?”
“It’s still there. If we tried to restrain or even approach it, it prepared to attack, so we figured leaving it there was the best option.”
“So the problem’s not solved, then.”
“…We decided during the meeting just now to hang back.”
That was the conclusion they’d reached in that room. Rather than risk bigger losses by messing it up, they would leave it there until they had built up their strength for combat. There was probably no one in any other country who could beat that undead anyhow, and if there were, they would need to be cautious of such power and prepare their national defenses accordingly. They had decided to leave the bare minimum number of agents and withdraw the rest.
And he agreed, at least in part.
The only ones who could face that vampire head-on and win were probably demigods and dragonlords. So it was smarter to leave it there as an alarm and be on guard against whoever killed it.
“Hmm. It can’t be a vampire…”
He agreed. That was why he had called it some unknown type of undead.
“It’s not a dragonlord? The Vampiric Dragonlord or the Elder Coffin Dragonlord?”
The edges of her lips turned up farther into the clear shape of a smile—if an expression that brutal could be a smile, that is.
“…Both of them are already dead, you know,” he said, sensing a chill in the air.
She replied immediately. “They’re both undead. We don’t know that they’re really gone.” She raised her head for the first time and met his gaze squarely. The light in her different-colored eyes was curiosity, joy, and the urge to do battle. “Between me and the vampire, who do you think is stronger?”
He had anticipated this question, so he gave the response he’d prepared in advance. “You.”
“Oh…” She seemed to lose interest and went back to her toy.
He gave a sigh of relief in his head.
“That’s too bad. I thought I could learn what it’s like to lose…”
Listening to her mutter, he wondered who would really be stronger if they clashed. He’d been hit by both of them, and from his experience, he would guess the vampire would be declared the winner. But actually, the vampire could never win against No Death–No Life.
The reason was their gear. The vampire didn’t seem to be equipped with anything. That was the weakness of powerful monsters—they had so much confidence in their abilities that they didn’t think to equip powerful gear.
In comparison, No Death–No Life’s equipment was made up of pieces left by the Six Gods. That was why he could declare her stronger. But if that advantage disappeared…? That could never happen. He rejected the idea as soon as it occurred. It would be impossible to find gear equal to hers—the gods’.
So if it were possible? That could be the day the Slane Theocracy’s strongest, the additional seat, lost. It would be the day they faced the despair of the protector of humanity’s defeat.
Wait, why am I assuming she would have to fight alone? I may not be as strong as her, but I’m an awakened demigod, and I have some items we could use. If we took advantage of all that, surely we’d be able to take out one undead, even if it was immensely powerful. There can’t be a bunch of them if they’re that strong. Lost in thought, he heard a giggle. He twisted his face into a quizzical frown and eyed its source.
“Here’s a different topic: When are you gonna get married?”
It was an unresolved topic from the meeting. When would he find a suitable woman—to put it nicely, a fiancée; to put it less nicely, a tool for reproducing?
“There isn’t anybody.”
“Well, you’re still young, so I guess it can’t be helped.”
While conducting Black Scripture business, members wore magic masks to give them fake faces. In the Slane Theocracy, adulthood was prescribed in law by the gods as age twenty, but when he took off his mask, he was far younger than that.
“If you get married, she’ll end up on the dark side of the theocracy, too… but you don’t have to worry about it. She’ll still get to raise your kids.”
“I know that. There are already some people doing it in the scriptures.”
“I see. Oh, but you should make sure to tell her you’ll be marrying another woman besides just her. Polygamy isn’t a problem legally, but some people hate it even though they’ve been taught that.”
Polygamy was allowed in the Slane Theocracy if one had permission from the state. It was a vestige of the past historical custom born from a need to maintain pure bloodlines of the few powerful citizens available. Still, the majority of marriages were monogamous, and only a handful of polygamous cases were approved per year. And even when it was approved, the limit was two wives.
“Thanks for the kind advice. And what about you? You’re not getting married?”
She did look young, but he was asking because he knew she was really older.
“Hmm. If there was a guy who could defeat me, I’d marry him no matter how ugly he was, no matter how twisted a personality he had…even if he wasn’t human. I mean, imagine—a guy who could defeat me! I wonder how strong our kid would be…” With a hand on her lower abdomen, she replied with her first ear-to-ear grin of the day, and he was sure she had no intention to marry.
But what if someone who could defeat that vampire appeared?
A slight uneasiness flickered across his mind.