Chapter 73

Question 2

The appointed one (The Predestined One).

On the surface, it meant someone chosen or designated to fulfill a particular purpose or role. Someone burdened with a destiny and a mission, regardless of their own will.

'Avarus didn't know anything beyond that.'

All Avarus had known was that Seraphia was the appointed one. Suspecting he might be lying, I'd hit him with Dragon Rage Explosion[E] a couple of times, but the result had been the same.

He had merely repeated that he was following the order's instructions. The order in question was the Devotees of the Fallen Souls—in other words, the Dark Merchant Company. Avarus had simply manufactured the Elixir of Infinity on their instructions.

But that was fine. I already knew what role had been reserved for Seraphia.

'The Sovereign of Bitter Cold, of course.'

What else could it be? The Sudden Quest's penalty pointed to that very outcome, so I could be certain. In other words, the Dark Merchant Company had deliberately approached Seraphia to turn her into the Sovereign of Bitter Cold.

If so, that raised a question. If the Dark Merchant Company had ordered her transformation into the Sovereign of Bitter Cold, had that order come from the [Sovereign of the Abyss]? Or from the [Emperor]?

The god the Dark Merchant Company worshipped was, of course, the Sovereign of the Abyss. But the one that Sovereign served was none other than the Emperor. In other words, the Emperor, just like the Sovereign of the Abyss, could give orders to the Dark Merchant Company. And if the order had come from him...

'Why didn't the Emperor intervene personally?'

This was a matter of recruiting the Sovereign of Bitter Cold, the imperial army's greatest asset and the Allied Army's Greatest Enemy.

Was it because Seraphia was a countess, a high-ranking noble? Because things would get messy if Battenberg's royal court intervened? That was possible, but...

'Hmm.'

It was highly unlikely. After all, he was the Emperor of the empire—the continent's foremost power and absolute ruler. The Kingdom of Battenberg had to worry about displeasing him, not the other way around.

'Or did he not fully understand Seraphia's Authority at this point?'

That would explain why he hadn't intervened personally. With my knowledge of the future, I knew Seraphia was the Sovereign of Bitter Cold, but the Emperor wouldn't.

What if he thought of her as merely a useful pawn? That would explain his lack of personal involvement perfectly well, but...

'Then what's this about the appointed one?'

The fact that she'd been called "the appointed one" troubled me. That choice of words made it sound as though they knew everything about Seraphia.

The appointed one (The Predestined One).

'It feels like there's something else I don't know.'

It seemed to mean something more than simply "the Sovereign of Bitter Cold." Come to think of it, information about her had been severely limited even in my previous life. The empire—and the Emperor in particular—had kept everything concerning her strictly under wraps. That made his failure to intervene personally all the stranger.

Taking that thought a step further...

'Could this be connected to Ian's regrets?'

Ian's regrets. It occurred to me that there might be a connection there as well.

'Ian, you bastard. If you knew something, you should've just come out and said it.'

Just wait until I found him. Now that I'd grown so much stronger, I intended to give him a proper earful.

Still, it wasn't as if he'd done it on purpose. He probably hadn't known much himself. Most likely, while fighting the Sovereign of Bitter Cold, he'd only vaguely sensed that something else was going on.

In any case, I needed to find out exactly what "the appointed one" meant.

'... Looks like I'm not getting a separate quest for this.'

I'd been secretly hoping for one. Still, quests only pointed me in a direction. And in that sense, my course was already set.

Find Ian's trail. Discover the true meaning of "the appointed one."

The next destination, where I could address both those goals, was practically decided.

* * *

Kai had collected all the wealth in the secret vault with Adrian—or rather, Adrian had collected it all himself. When they emerged from underground, sunlight was filtering through the manor's collapsed ceiling, glimmering faintly through the dust.

Dawn must have broken while they were below. Faint yet bright, the sunlight revealed the ruined manor more clearly: shattered doors, destroyed furniture, and the smoke and scorch marks left in the wake of Avarus's lightning magic.

As they walked the corridors of the all-but-demolished manor, fragments of destroyed magic circles crunched softly underfoot. An eerie stillness hung over everything.

Beyond the ruined corridor, they were greeted by countless guards sprawled in pools of blood and the manor's thoroughly demolished main gate. Adrian had smashed it at the start of their surprise attack—and so completely that the cool morning breeze now blew freely through the opening.

They were about to leave the manor and head back to the county when Adrian abruptly called Kai to a halt.

"Wait."

Kai stopped in his tracks and turned. Adrian reached toward the fallen guards, and their bodies were promptly sucked away somewhere, vanishing just as the piles of gold coins had.

Kai knew they were homunculi, not humans, so he wasn't particularly shocked.

"..."

But he couldn't hide his bewilderment.

It was the reason Adrian was collecting them. At first glance, he seemed to be destroying evidence, but that wasn't it. Simply breaking them down and selling the magical materials used to create them would bring in a considerable sum.

Adrian was scraping up every last thing of value, leaving nothing behind.

"..."

His fanatical pragmatism left Kai speechless.

In no time, Adrian had collected all the guards' bodies. Then, as if he still wasn't finished, he set off again. Kai followed him to the town in the viscounty...

"What is this...?"

Every one of its many residents stood motionless, like puppets whose magical strings had come loose. This, apparently, was the reason for the eerie stillness he'd sensed outside the manor.

"When Avarus died, their power source was cut off."

"You mean...?"

"Like the guards at the manor, none of the residents were human. Avarus turned the entire viscounty into homunculi and controlled them as he pleased."

The lifeless eyes of the residents bore out Adrian's words. Their skin, drained of vitality, had turned a pale gray. Had they stopped where they stood in the middle of their work? Some still held tools in their hands.

Others had been talking in the streets. They, too, stood frozen in place.

Children had stopped in the middle of eating fruit. The fruit lay split on the ground where it had fallen. Innocent smiles remained frozen on their faces, but no feeling lingered behind them. What remained here were no longer living beings, only empty shells.

Adrian stored the inactive residents away somewhere, one by one. Men, women, children, the elderly. He continued until sunset.

After spending a full day collecting every resident of the viscounty, Kai thought Adrian would finally head back to the county. Instead, he went to a desolate field outside the viscounty. There, he took out all the residents he had painstakingly collected and laid them in a single row.

Their bodies had turned a somber gray. Kai knew they weren't human, but his heart was heavy nonetheless. He couldn't understand why Adrian was doing this.

After a long while, Adrian finished laying them all on the ground. Bending his knees slightly, he unleashed a dragon's inferno.

WHOOSH!

The flames raged, melting the frozen earth of the tundra and swallowing the residents' bodies.

"Why would you...?"

Questions filled Kai's eyes. Why take them all out and burn them after going to such lengths to collect them?

As though reading his mind, Adrian spoke.

"Creating homunculi requires human genes."

His left arm had burned to ash and disappeared. He did not regenerate it.

"It means every one of them was once a person."

It felt as though he meant to share in their pain and sorrow. Only then did Kai realize why Adrian had collected the viscounty's residents.

It wasn't to break them down for magical materials. Much less to sell them for money.

A funeral.

Adrian didn't see them as mere homunculi. He saw each of them as a human being, an innocent victim.

The inferno swallowed all the residents in moments. With the roaring flames behind him, Adrian asked,

"Kai, what do you think a soldier is?"

A soldier. Someone authorized to use force, and through it, to serve their country with devotion and loyalty.

Though soldiers received wages, they needed a conviction rooted in devotion and loyalty. Those without such convictions were not called soldiers, merely mercenaries.

"To me, soldiers are people who run in the opposite direction."

But Adrian's definition was somewhat different.

"Knights and soldiers who run in the opposite direction from the people fleeing."

"..."

"A mother who plunges into the flames to save her child. A father who leaves the comfort of his home at dawn to provide for his family."

"..."

"An adventurer who turns their back on treasure so their companions can survive. A mercenary who walks onto a deadly battlefield to preserve their own way of life."

"..."

"A king who steps down from his throne for his people. A clown who swallows his tears to make others smile."

"..."

"People with things they must protect, things they want to protect, who can cast aside their lives and their pride without hesitation."

"..."

"They're all soldiers."

"..."

"That's why a soldier's pride doesn't come from winning wars. It comes from protecting something. At least, that's what I believe."

Then he added,

"And what I wanted to protect as a soldier were innocent people like these."

The innocent people of the viscounty, victims of Avarus, were burning in the inferno. Adrian clenched his fist tight.

The enemy commander, Avarus, had been annihilated. The county had suffered no damage, and they had secured an enormous fortune in spoils. If this raid could be called a war, there could have been no greater victory.

And yet...

CRACK!

Adrian was furious.

These weren't his county's people, but residents of the viscounty whose faces he hadn't even known. None of this was his fault. And yet, Adrian was furious.

There was nothing... frivolous about him. Adrian had seemed so ruthless, so indiscriminate. At times, he had even seemed flippant. But his heart and convictions were anything but shallow.

The funeral was small, quiet, and unceremonious. There was nothing grand or imposing about Adrian as he stood before it. Yet Kai could feel his feelings toward him changing.

Adrian had been the first to charge the monster legion when it attacked the county. He had shown the resolve to throw himself into danger for its sake. The tenacity he had displayed in the Infinite Labyrinth, the unyielding will that refused to give up no matter what happened—and now his sincerity and devotion toward the victims.

Without realizing it, Kai's view of Adrian was changing. A feeling called Trust, utterly different from Hatred. Yet Hatred still lingered like an echo, stirring a maelstrom of emotion deep within him.

He still couldn't understand the man called Adrian. Perhaps he never would.

But the sight of Adrian before him now went beyond understanding. It inspired admiration and respect.

* * *

The raging inferno died out only after it had cremated the residents. All that remained was pure white bone ash, heaped like snow—the sole trace of their existence.

The sunset was fading from the sky. A passing tundra wind swept up the ash, scattering it like a quiet song of farewell.

Only then did Adrian slowly begin to walk. But he wasn't heading back toward the county.

"Where are you going?"

Adrian didn't turn at Kai's question. He simply kept walking, one step after another.

"To the lawless city, Violess."

Kai could see that Adrian's gaze was calmer and deeper than ever before.