Chapter 240 - Even in a Life Like This (3)

The Archmage watched the Inquisitor pour forth immense divine power, her lips clamped shut like a clam. The young woman's eyes, once as green and vibrant as summer foliage, held neither life nor light anymore.

The same was true of the lips that had once smiled so brilliantly. The woman whose smile had grown fresher with each passing day was now as stiff as when she had first left the Temple.

All of it was the change wrought by one person's absence.

"Mage Boss."

But she was not the only one who had changed. There was another here who had been shaken deeply by the void someone had left.

"The Lord sent someone."

The Archmage took a moment to choose her words as she studied Deathbringer's face, gaunt and cold as a winter wind. Even discounting the shadows, the area around his eyes was terribly dark. He was probably sleeping poorly every night.

His thinning face, its cheeks taking on an ashen cast, hid beneath the shadow of his hood and pretended all was well.

"... I see. Did you hear what they wanted?"

Pointing any of that out would only sour the mood, however. It had happened often enough already.

So the Archmage left it unmentioned and changed the subject. Deathbringer shook his head.

"Very well. I'll hear it for myself, then. They're at the usual place?"

"Yes."

She had accomplished her purpose of checking on the Inquisitor. With a visitor waiting, there was no reason not to return. It was her workplace, after all.

The Archmage nodded readily and turned away. Deathbringer, apparently having come only to deliver the news, turned to leave as well, though in a different direction.

"... Is Berserker there as well?"

If he was headed that way, he was probably going to help reinforce the shelters. The Inquisitor might be exerting her power, but no one knew how long this wind would last.

"I don't know."

"... All right. Don't push yourself too hard."

But if asked whether what they were doing was right, she could hardly say yes. Everyone was struggling, and no one had anything to spare. Yet there was something undeniably twisted about working while refusing even the bare minimum of food and comfort available to them.

In truth, she wanted to snap that this was self-abuse, not devotion; overwork, not service. She held back only because she knew they could not bear to do otherwise.

"It seems your influence was greater than I thought..."

No, would they even listen if she did rebuke them?

The Archmage recalled their stubborn reactions whenever she tried to broach the subject—walking away, or descending into fierce self-recrimination.

They would never let anyone stop them.

Not until they could forgive themselves.

"Archmage."

"Ah, I heard you were looking for me. Has something happened?"

If there was any consolation, it was that, unlike those two, Berserker had not gone as far as abusing herself. Granted, she hardly seemed well lately, either.

In Berserker's case, there even seemed to be something else at play, rather than simply shock at the Demon Knight's departure.

In other words, the Archmage could not even guess what was causing her to sink into herself. Naturally, without knowing the cause, she could find no solution.

"Well..."

How did they all manage to give her insoluble problems to agonize over?

The Archmage listened to the messenger with one part of her mind while thinking of her companions with the other.

It was not particularly difficult. Except, perhaps, for the fact that her companions' circumstances were themselves a thorny problem.

"An envoy, then..."

Meanwhile, the Lord's request, as relayed by the messenger, was a truly taxing one. Never mind having to scrape together a conversation through the few Great Forest characters the Mountain Lord laboriously wrote. That would not be the hardest part.

Instead, the Archmage looked toward the Mountain Lord's location. The rain and wind, imperceptible thanks to the golden barrier, would remind her of nature's might the moment she stepped outside it.

"Very well. Tell him I'll do it."

The prospect of making her way through that weather to the castle where the Mountain Lord stayed was daunting... but with so many lives at stake, she could hardly refuse.

She accepted the Lord's request.

"Would it be best to leave at once?"

"He gave no particular instructions, but we would be grateful if you could."

"Very well. I'll go now, then."

"I'll bring your escort here."

"Thank you."

It would likely take about ten minutes to bring the escort here. Judging how much time that left her to get ready, the Archmage pulled open the entrance of a nearby tent.

The person working inside, his ankles shackled, slowly raised his head.

He might be suspected of heresy, but in their predicament, they could not afford to leave a Great Sage idle. Thus Blue Coral was lending his strength even in chains.

The Archmage worked here too, incidentally. Calling her an overseer would be rather grandiose. It was simply an unavoidable arrangement, since putting two Great Sages together improved efficiency.

The risk of collusion? Unfortunately, their present circumstances left no room to consider that.

"Keep doing people favors, and they start thinking they're entitled to them. This is a perfect example."

"You heard all that?"

"I'd say the fault lies with whoever was talking right outside the tent."

That was fair enough. The Archmage shrugged.

"It is shameless, yes, but what choice do we have?"

As the conversation returned to its original subject, Blue Coral's fingers stilled.

"Yes. There is no choice. There was no choice. Neither this world nor he had any choice."

His eyes filled with regret for something.

"Indeed. Let's leave it at that. It'll only leave a bitter taste in our mouths."

At his gaze and his subtly odd choice of words, the Archmage's brow furrowed. She took out the device Blue Coral had given her before his confinement.

CLICK

The device absorbed the voices inside the tent, swallowing all sound within its range. Now the Temple sentry standing just outside would be unable to hear their conversation.

This trick was possible only because not a single mage had reported the device's existence to the Temple.

"More importantly, 'he'? Do you mean the Demon Knight?"

This was why the Archmage, too, had kept quiet about it. Blue Coral was the only person here who could speak to the Demon Knight's decision.

Of course, he was also the one who had maintained an unbroken silence about it ever since the Demon Knight left.

"Who knows?"

"Can't you spare a word for a friend?"

Still, 'he had no choice,' was it?

The Archmage turned over the clue Blue Coral had finally offered after so long. It did not come as much of a shock.

Of course not. She had always believed the Demon Knight must have had a reason to leave. All the more so because none other than Blue Coral had helped him escape. He denied it, but honestly, could his claim that it had been an accident possibly be true?

"I believe in the Demon Knight. And I trust your decision as well."

After all, if a demon truly had been involved in his escape, as the Temple claimed—if he had been consumed by it, or fallen for its enticements—could Blue Coral possibly have failed to notice? And having noticed, would he ever have let him go so readily?

So she believed that the Demon Knight had fled entirely of his own will. And she was willing to respect that choice. He was someone worthy of such trust.

"But quite apart from that trust, I simply want to know. Why he had to do it."

Trusting someone and wanting to know them could coexist. You could trust someone without knowing, but understanding them required that knowledge.

And the Archmage wanted to understand the Demon Knight. She had missed far too many chances to do so, and wanted to grasp at least this last fragment. That was all she wanted.

"Will you still say nothing?"

"..."

But if even that was denied her...

"... Very well."

She could only accept it humbly.

It was her own fault she had missed those chances, after all.

"... If sacrificing one innocent person could let everyone else live in comfort, would that sacrifice be right?"

"...?"

"Is it truly wise to offer up what is most common, yet most precious, merely to preserve fools and dullards?"

Yet now, for the first time, the man who had remained silent so long offered an extended hint: the reason he had had no choice but to help the Demon Knight. At least, that was how the Archmage saw it.

"... A question of morality?"

She knew Blue Coral was more tenderhearted than he pretended. But she had not thought him the sort to take a gamble simply because he pitied one man...

"This isn't a question of morality. It's a question of having the right."

"...?"

Before the Archmage's train of thought had run its course, however, Blue Coral shook his head.

"He decided he would endure no more, and I decided to respect his choice. I had no right to stop him. That is all."

There was something ambiguous about his words. He had decided to endure no more? The Demon Knight?

... The man who treated himself as a demon and quietly wished only for death?

"Tell me just a little more. What did he decide he would no longer endure? What on earth did he learn that made him resort to something he never would have chosen? He... what in the world..."

Her Shaggy ears caught the sound of iron-shod footsteps. Probably the soldiers coming to escort her. There was no time left.

"I can't tell you."

"Blue Coral."

"He didn't give me permission."

There was no more time.

"We'll speak again later."

The Archmage switched off the sound-suppressing device and promised another conversation. Of course, both she and Blue Coral knew they had merely been lucky this time, and there would be no next time.

She hurried to gather her clothes.

"If you have time, go check on that grandson of mine. I haven't the faintest idea how he's doing."

Blue Coral tossed out the remark just as she pulled on her robe and reached to open the tent. The Archmage narrowed her eyes.

"... You haven't had any news?"

"I can't leave this place. And he isn't allowed inside."

Was this a hint or not?

The Archmage's mind worked furiously, but her answer was a ready assent.

"Very well. I'll look for him on my way back."

Beyond the tent flap she pulled aside stood the soldiers who would protect her.

* * *

No matter how much one wanted to help people with inventions, technology lost half its value without materials and tools.

And so Meister—a craftsman who was an inventor, scientist, engineer, and architect all in one—did the only thing he could do at present.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for someone."

Something other than work.

"Still looking?"

"Yes."

Surprisingly, this was not much of a waste of his talents. After all, laying out the refugee camp and planning the drainage routes were things you did once and finished. They hardly required his constant attention. Nor was he the only person capable of planning them.

The same held true of his work as a mage and inventor. As mentioned, without materials, tools, or time, there was little he could do. At best, he had built a water purifier using a pump salvaged from the city and installed stoves here and there to reduce the risk of fire.

Even his battery was useless, given the awkward requirement that it be dropped to recharge, and the fact that no magical items existed that ran on an attached battery. It was not as if he had time to improve it, either.

Under these circumstances, what was there to do but ordinary labor?

So Meister scanned his surroundings, his fingers and mouth itching for a smoke. His gaze swept between the tents of the camp, which was in disarray with the arrival of more reinforcements and the relocation of some tents in preparation for flooding in the low-lying areas. Unfortunately, the person he wanted was still nowhere to be seen. He had been searching every day since the Demon Knight's escape, to no avail.

Whether by coincidence or design, this person was truly hard to find.

"Who on earth is it?"

"An adventurer who came with the reinforcements a few days ago."

But he could not give up. Once Meister wanted to know something, he had to keep investigating until he was satisfied.

"An adventurer? Why?"

"I have something to say to them."

Besides, though the others did not know, Meister himself knew the Demon Knight had received something before disappearing.

He also knew that the Demon Knight, who had seemed utterly unwilling to protest even after his attempts at persuasion—the man who had seemed so pliant in his willingness to accept execution—had made his escape the very day he received it.

Wasn't that too convincing a connection to dismiss as coincidence?

"Er, this isn't about the charges against you... is it?"

"Not an unreasonable assumption, but an insulting one. Would I be looking so openly if that were the reason? I'm looking because they did a sh*t job on a commission and I want to complain."

"Oh..."

But if that really was what had changed the Demon Knight's mind, what could have been written there to produce such a result?

As far as Meister could tell, the Demon Knight was not a man easily swayed.

"Wouldn't it be better to go through the guild, then?"

"Look at the state the guild's in. It'll be faster to find the person and complain myself than wait for them to do their jobs."

"That's true enough."

That was precisely why he was searching now. He felt he would never be satisfied until he knew what had driven that upright man to go as far as escaping.

Being the adventurer who delivered it did not necessarily mean knowing its contents. Even if they did know, they might cite a confidentiality clause and refuse to tell him. Still, he had to try if he wanted no lingering regrets.

"Well, that's a relief... but be careful anyway. If the Temple finds out, they might suspect collusion or something again. You haven't even cleared yourself of all the charges yet."

His companion tried to dissuade him, however, knowing that Meister was suspected of heresy—to the point that he was not even permitted to visit his own grandfather.

Of course, Meister merely snorted at the advice.

"What's there to worry about? Do you really think I'd fall victim to a contrived case full of nothing but assertions and opinions, without a shred of evidence or proof?"

It was true that he had met the Demon Knight on the night of his escape. Unknown to the Temple, he had also urged him to protest and secretly passed something to him.

But wasn't it excessively foolish to brand him a heretic for that alone? If he really were a heretic—not that he would ever become one—he would never have done things in a way that invited suspicion like this.

"Hmm, ah. On second thought, perhaps I should be careful. Arguing with people whose heads are just ornaments would be a nuisance."

"No, that's not what I meant..."

He had borrowed an item as a precaution, but it was not omnipotent. And on further thought, these people did not seem likely to accept his rebuttals even if he answered every point. The Temple's people were idiots who thought faith could justify everything.

Speaking to them would therefore waste his time and leave him feeling as though exchanging words with idiots had contaminated his brain.

"I'll be careful."

"Good..."

For reasons of his own, Meister decided to take the advice. His companion looked a little appalled but said nothing more. It seemed the result was good enough.

"...! Found them!"

"Oh."

Then, at last, Meister spotted the adventurer from that day. Gray hair in a little ponytail, an unremarkable face. There was no doubt.

"Hey, Adven—!"

But before Meister could call out to the adventurer, someone else caught hold of them. A hood pulled low, with green ears protruding from it. It was the fellow whose name he did not know, but with whom he had nearly met his end.

"Why is he..."

Why was Green Ears looking for that adventurer? And why were they grabbing each other by the collar?

Meister briefly rummaged through his mind for clues. Even as he did, his legs carried him steadily toward them. Whatever was going on, he had no intention of losing the person he had finally found.

"There you are."

"... What, the Temple? What is it this time?"

It seemed, however, that quite a few people had business with the adventurer—or perhaps with Green Ears, given that the newcomer had addressed him.

Before Meister could properly announce his own business with the adventurer, an ash-haired Inquisitor he had never seen before joined them.

Suddenly, four people who knew one another only through overlapping acquaintances stood together.

Is It a Problem If the Protagonist Is a Roleplay Fanatic? (Serialized)

Author │ Hae Inseol

Publisher │ Kim Juhyeong

Published by │ Jple Media Co., Ltd.

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