Chapter 207 - The Romanticist (2)

Najin knew a thing or two about finding people. He hadn't been bluffing to Anton Quijano; he genuinely had confidence in that sort of work.

What work had he taken up with nothing but a blade as soon as he was old enough to know better? Finding people. Tracking down bastards who ran off with money, traitors, and those in hiding, then fucking them up—that had been Najin's first job.

Granted, he'd only done it within the confines of the underground city, but people were much the same wherever you went, weren't they?

'Ah, a postman's uniform would be perfect right now.'

Najin smacked his lips wistfully. Remembering his days in the underground city had brought to mind the postman's uniform he always wore for work. Just as a knight donned armor and a cook wore a hat and apron, Najin would sling on a postman's bag and pull his cap down before getting to work.

Making do with what he had, Najin loosened his free knight's attire and cleared his throat a few times.

"So, what can you tell me about the person you're looking for?"

First, gather information.

"Distinguishing features, places she might stay—the more detail, the better. Let's start with what you know."

"You're taking this quite seriously."

Anton chuckled and folded his arms.

"I'm looking for a woman who disappeared about four hundred years ago. Four hundred twenty-seven years, seven months, and twenty-one days ago, to be exact."

"What was your relationship with her?"

"A passionate one. It was rather one-sided, but it even involved a pierced heart once. Ah, mine was the heart that got pierced. She was a fiery woman."

"... Were you enemies, by any chance?"

"Why would you say something so grim? I told you, it was a passionate relationship. She played hard to get at first, but after I confessed my love over and over, she accepted me."

"How many times did you confess?"

"Is that a necessary question?"

"No, I'm just curious."

"I like your honesty. Let's see. More than fifty and fewer than a hundred, I think."

Najin's expression turned peculiar.

"At that point, didn't she just accept because you were annoying her?"

"My feelings reached her."

"Well, anyway. So you were lovers?"

"More or less. Though she left me right after we spent a passionate night together. Ah, on my honor and my pride as a man, it wasn't because that night left her unsatisfied. It was the best night of both our lives."

Anton stroked his stylishly trimmed beard and let out a long breath.

"There must have been significant outside factors behind her leaving me."

"Outside factors?"

"Society's judgment... No, that isn't quite right. Neither of us cared what other people thought. In this case, the problem would have been someone who was essentially her parent. She was quite an overbearing mother-in-law."

A mother-in-law? Parental opposition?

Najin's expression grew stranger still. He'd seen a story like this somewhere. He thought something similar had happened in the romance novel tucked among the books Dieta had lent him.

["D-did you read it? That one? Why is this here?"]

["Pardon? It was mixed in with the others."]

["That, um, I mean, I didn't choose that book, you know? I, uh, told my employees to pick out some books, and apparently they picked something like that too?"]

The memory of Dieta rambling with her face bright red briefly flashed through his mind.

"Anton, aren't you a transcendent being?"

"That's right."

"What about the woman?"

"She was one too. Enough to punch a hole through my heart."

"Do parents interfere in the love lives of transcendent beings? Is that parent a transcendent being too?"

"Ah, she is. The strongest in the world, in fact."

What was that supposed to mean?

Najin tilted his head.

"The strongest in the world? Do you mean figuratively? Something about how parents can become as strong as they need to for their children..."

"No, it's literally true. Besides, I doubt there's any parent-child affection between her and my mother-in-law."

"Who on earth is she?"

"The witch."

The instant Anton Quijano uttered the word "witch," Najin felt a chill run up his spine. It wasn't his own reaction.

—"..."

It came from Merlin's emotions flowing into him through their connection. There were a few things that touched a raw nerve with her, and the witch was one of them. But it lasted only a moment. Merlin soon let out a long breath and reined in her emotions.

More precisely, she tried to.

"The Witch of Camlann."

Anton's added words thwarted that attempt.

Najin's heart gave a heavy thump. The emotions coming from Merlin were simply too intense. Unaware of what was happening inside him, Anton shrugged.

"All witches have one unwritten rule."

He clicked his tongue.

"Never become involved with a human. My beloved broke that rule, so the Witch of Camlann, who is essentially the mother of all witches, dealt out divine punishment. Fucking bullshit."

Anton Quijano.

"Ah, I forgot to mention this."

He called himself the Romanticist and the lover of the century, but others had different names for him.

"The woman I loved is a witch. Lapis, the Witch of Distrust."

The knight who loved a witch.

The fool who broke a taboo, blinded by love.

"She was one hell of a fiery woman."

One of only three such fools in all human history stroked his beard and smiled.

2.

Najin's expression grew complicated.

He'd been romantically involved with a witch? As far as Najin knew, witches were a race that spent their entire lives contemplating how to burn humans so well that word of their handiwork would spread. Weren't they a race that lived solely to kill humans?

"What, does that seem strange?"

"I feel a little awkward saying this, but yes. A bit."

"I understand. I thought exactly the same before I met her. Witches? Isn't that the word for pyromaniacs who take pleasure in burning humans alive? That was my prejudice. Well, it isn't actually wrong, either."

"I still think that way," Anton added with a chuckle.

"I didn't fall in love with a witch. That's just a very incidental label that came along with loving her. I didn't love Lapis because she was a witch. I fell in love, and she happened to be one."

"Did you meet her without knowing she was a witch?"

"No? I knew from our very first meeting."

"..."

"Look, boy. That's how love works. When you truly love someone, every other factor becomes secondary. That's what Lapis was to me."

Najin wasn't terribly convinced, but he nodded, since the conversation seemed unlikely to move forward unless he accepted it.

"Do you have any other clues?"

"Plenty. I haven't spent all four hundred years tending this flower garden."

Anton let out a short breath and began.

"Kölmel Gorge. Lake Galid. The Osgal Ruins. The Great Hormein Forest. Weibel Falls. Daunon Gorge. The Graveyard of Stars. The Battlefield of Stars. The Great Bedad Ruins..."

Countless names of places, ruins, and gorges poured from his lips. After listing them for dozens of minutes, Anton added one more thing.

"Those are the places I've searched over the past four hundred years."

"..."

"I've searched every plausible location. But I couldn't find a trace of her. She's definitely somewhere in the Outer Lands, yet I no longer have any idea where to look."

"If you've gone that far..."

Najin was about to ask whether she might be dead, but Anton cut him off.

"She's alive. That much is certain. My heart is still beating. I'm warning you: don't spout nonsense about her being dead in front of me."

Anton's gaze was sharp as he looked at Najin. There was even a chill to it. Then his eyes relaxed, and he gave a roguish smile.

"Well, that's how it is. Honestly, I don't expect much from you. If I couldn't find a trace after scouring the Outer Lands for four hundred years, there's no way you can."

"Won't we have to wait and see about that?"

"I like your confidence. All right. As for a clue, she always used to say this."

After that murmur, Anton spoke in a singsong voice.

["Ah, Anton. Anton, you worthless son of a bitch."]

["If I ever leave you, you know,"]

["It'll most likely be because I'm sick of you. But I'm a woman with a heart broader than the sea, so if you come find me, I might take an interest in you one more time."]

["I'm telling you this because you have less sense than a flea and might not understand. And to add a few things, I like looking at the sun. From very high places, especially. Do you understand? Nod if you do. Before I bite those lips off."]

"... Hmm."

She certainly was fiery. For now, Najin extracted and organized the useful information from Anton's singsong recital.

"So our clues are somewhere high up with a good view of the sun."

"That's right."

"There would be countless places like that on the continent, but in the Outer Lands, that's a solid clue."

Places where the sun was visible were rare in the Outer Lands.

It narrowed the possibilities, but it still wasn't enough. Najin spoke inwardly to Merlin.

'Do you know anything, Merlin?'

—"I do. Plenty. So much that I'm not even sure where to start."

She didn't seem particularly happy.

—"Do you know my nickname?"

'The great archmage?'

—"Not that one."

'King Arthur's guide.'

—"Not that one either."

Merlin sighed before speaking.

—"The Witch Slayer. The person who's killed more witches than anyone in history. The number I've killed or crippled with my own hands is at least in the triple digits, you know."

The Empire's histories glossed over this with one short sentence: "The archmage Merlin abhorred witches and devils, and vanquished them." Merlin now recounted, one by one, the stories condensed into those words.

—"There was a time when I tried to wipe out every last witch by all sorts of means—shattering their circles, burning them alive, dunking them in water, chopping them into little pieces... I learned quite a lot about witches back then. I do remember the 'Witch of Distrust' he's talking about."

Looking as though she'd bitten into a bug, her expression full of displeasure, Merlin grumbled.

—"I don't remember her name, but it's probably her. Ask that fellow in front of you whether the witch named Lapis has a long scar across her chest."

Najin did so. When he asked, "Doesn't this witch, Lapis, have a long scar across her chest?" Anton's eyes widened.

"How do you know that? Have you met her? Ah, wait a moment. That would mean you've seen my woman's breasts... I'm trying to decide whether to rejoice at the possibility of a lead or be furious that another man has seen her breasts."

"I haven't actually seen them, so I don't think you need to worry about that."

"Oh, that's a relief."

When Najin told Merlin that Anton had confirmed it, she nodded.

—"Then it's her. A witch I've met before. It's complicated, but she's also one I let leave alive."

'Really?'

—"I am very, very reluctant, and I really hate this, but there is a way to find out where that witch is."

What? Najin's eyes widened.

When he'd told Anton he had an excellent guide, Najin hadn't expected all that much from Merlin. He hadn't thought she would be such a great help.

'At most, her help would be...'

Since Anton was a man from four hundred years ago, he'd thought it would amount to checking the Merlin encyclopedia for what had happened back then.

—"I feel like you're thinking something extremely rude."

'I was merely appreciating your greatness anew.'

—"... Really?"

'The great archmage. The most capable guide in history. The one who always shows me the way...'

Merlin had been mortified when Najin launched into a long list of his own achievements with "Who am I?" Yet she showed not the slightest embarrassment when her own accomplishments were praised.

—"Hehe."

Smiling happily, she gestured with her chin, as though inviting him to go on. Only after Najin had spent quite some time singing her praises did she give a broad nod and fold her arms, apparently feeling a little better at last.

—"Well, I suppose I have no choice. As the great archmage and the most capable guide, I'll show you the way. All you need to do is follow!"

3.

"Are you serious?"

"I'd like to ask my guide the same thing. Are you serious about this?"

"Where is this guide of yours?"

"Inside me."

"Are you mentally ill?"

Najin had confidently led the way in the direction Merlin pointed, declaring, "Just follow me." But now he had no choice but to stop. He and Anton stood still, staring ahead.

"You want us to cross that?"

Anton pointed before them.

An enormous lake stretched out there. No, could it even be called a lake? Calling it a sea would be more accurate.

And that sea churned with whirlpools and flashed with lightning—which, astonishingly, struck upward rather than downward. Reefs rose like awls, then vanished beneath the water, over and over...

ROOOOOOOAR!

Deep-sea creatures large enough to swallow an entire castle whole swam along the surface, flaunting their size. Watching them, Najin turned to Merlin. With the most innocent expression in the world, she tilted her head and met his gaze.

—"What?"

'We have to cross this?'

—"Yes. I think she's on the other side."

Najin looked in the direction of Merlin's pointing finger. She was pointing beyond this sea.

"Good heavens."

Fucking hell.

Najin smacked his forehead.