Chapter 10 - Outside Story (1)

The day of the Subjugation Festival dawned.

This year's festival began at the kingdom's western border. Countless noble houses, including Hasgard, gathered to show off their military strength. And not just nobles—adventuring parties, mercenary companies, even the Church. Every group confident in its fighting prowess had turned up.

For several days, the kingdom's soldiers had been entering monster territory to provoke its inhabitants. When the enraged monsters crossed the western border, the festival participants would slaughter them.

Since people currently labored under the “misconception” that monsters were humanity's only enemy, the festival served both to control their numbers and to proclaim the kingdom's might.

“Heh heh... Daywin. You've become quite the rider. Back in September six years ago, you kept falling off and worrying your eldest brother.”

The eldest Hasgard glanced at me. He was talking about Daywin's childhood, before I'd possessed him.

He sounded like some court historian. Stop reciting the exact dates. It was creepy.

“But, Daywin.”

Suddenly, his smile disappeared and he lowered his voice.

“Did you really... bring an academy student? Surely there were better guards available...”

“You didn't know, Brother? She's someone our youngest has recently begun sponsoring.”

The middle Hasgard addressed the eldest with a smug air, as if boasting that he knew even the smallest details about his youngest brother.

I had no idea why they competed over things like that.

“Hmm... I believe we should split up here,” the eldest Hasgard said quietly a little later.

He was right. From here on, we would each lead our own troops to subjugate the monsters.

“Well then, Daywin. Let me know immediately if you're in danger. I'll come running.”

“Little brother! Don't forget your big brothers are nearby!”

Hearing that brought home the realization once again.

They...

Really didn't expect anything from me...

“It seems they don't have much faith in you...”

Esther spoke softly from behind me, sharing my horse.

“Though it's the same for me... Everyone here is so accomplished... I still don't know whether you really need me...”

She murmured so quietly I could barely hear her. Not only did she lack confidence, she looked consumed by anxiety.

The Esther in the game would have been excitedly declaring, “It's time to show what I can do!” right about now.

It seemed the tsundere was never coming back.

As I was feeling sorry for her, goblins came charging from the distance, kicking up clouds of dust.

Goblins. Our enemies for this Subjugation Festival.

They weren't particularly dangerous foes that urgently needed subjugating, but the organizers had gone out of their way to kill their chief and enrage the tribe for the festival.

It almost made me ashamed to be human.

“Esther, we're going to follow my second brother.”

“Um... weren't we supposed to split up now?”

“My second brother is rather careless. We'd better help him.”

“Oh, all right.”

“So I'm counting on you, Esther.”

My expression must have changed without my realizing it as I spoke, because Esther stared at my face.

“Ah... yes.”

The Subjugation Festival.

Today.

I could never forget this day. I'd thought the pain would dull with time, but every summer only added to my regret and grief.

On this day in my previous life, my second brother died.

010

The day of the end-of-term ceremony.

Before the Subjugation Festival began.

“Lucia, I'll be away for a while. I'm going to the Subjugation Festival.”

At those words, Lucia raised her eyes, ringed with dark circles.

Lucia. A third-year in the swordsmanship department. One of the five heroines. A girl whose days and nights were reversed.

And a member of a criminal guild operating in the marquisate's pleasure district.

“You're going to the Subjugation Festival, Master Karma?”

“Not to kill monsters, of course. As always, it's people I'll be killing.”

The man called Karma grinned. His head was shaved as though to show off his neat hairline, and his green eyes gleamed strangely as he spoke.

“Lucia, have you heard of House Hasgard?”

Hasgard.

Lucia had heard that name recently.

[“My name is Daywin Hasgard.”]

She hadn't just heard his name. She had looked him in the eye and spoken with him. He was a strange man who wanted to give a scholarship to a girl whose grades were rock-bottom because she always slept through class.

There was no way she would have forgotten his name already.

“... I've heard of them.”

“You have? That's a surprise. They're frontier nobles, so I assumed you wouldn't know them. Are you acquainted?”

“No.”

Strictly speaking, they could be called acquaintances. But something about Karma's manner unsettled her, so she answered flatly.

“That's a relief. Our target this time is Hasgard's second son. They want him killed at the Subjugation Festival.”

Karma, the guildmaster, tossed that out as though it were nothing.

Lucia felt her heart plummet, but struggled to keep her expression from twisting.

'The second son. Which son is he?'

“Who hired us?”

“Are you coming too? I'll tell you if you are.”

“... Lucia has remedial classes at the academy.”

That very Hasgard had secured her exemption from remedial classes, but she lied without batting an eye.

“This job is quite interesting. Apparently, Hasgard was the name of a war hero who distinguished himself in the war against the undead long ago. Those achievements earned him a countship in one stroke. My guess is... our client might be a follower of the necromancer.”

“Why bring up something from a hundred years ago now...?”

SNAP!

The moment Lucia finished speaking, Karma snapped his fingers.

“That's the interesting part. If the client really is a follower of the necromancer, why 'now' of all times? If it were hatred or revenge, wouldn't they have tried to kill him long ago? Well, as long as I get paid, that's all that matters.”

While Karma rattled on, Lucia remembered what had happened at the academy. A conversation she'd overheard by chance while passing the chairman's office.

[“As you said, Laward possesses a once-in-a-generation talent. But I have no intention of giving up on the other students.”]

[“Those five may be nothing but underachievers right now.”]

[“Please have a little more faith in your students.”]

Lucia had overheard Daywin trying to persuade the chairman. His voice was strong, filled with confidence and conviction.

At first, she'd had no intention of eavesdropping. But the moment she heard his voice, she stopped without realizing it.

She wanted to hear more. Just a little more of those words that expressed faith even in someone living a gutter life as part of a criminal guild.

She'd been so captivated by his words that she'd missed her chance to leave the corridor. Enough to let herself be noticed with an amateurish carelessness unbecoming of an assassin.

'I don't know which son he is.'

'I don't, but... '

“Could you... not go?”

“Hm?”

“I have a bad feeling.”

“... About what?”

“It could be a trap.”

“Well, that's possible. But it's a big enough job to justify the risk.”

“If it's about the payment, I'll work more. Even if I have to... sleep less.”

“Huh? How strange. You've never acted like this before.”

Karma tilted his head, then his expression turned cold.

“Of course I have to go. We're dealing with a count's family. The reward is no joke.”

“That's exactly why it's dangerous.”

“Haah... Lucia, do you even know how much money is riding on this job?”

“Well... no, but...”

“You should know that no matter how many other jobs you take, they won't come close to this one.”

“But if I work several times as hard...”

“Even if you do, you'll still be nowhere near covering your sisters' share. Those sisters of yours who do nothing but eat and shit. Who took them in? Who's raising them?”

The moment he mentioned her sisters, Lucia had no choice but to fall silent.

“Want me to throw them all out on the street? Three little girls in the pleasure district. Would they last even a day without my protection?”

“...”

“As you are now, you can't possibly do three people's share. Unless you quit that pathetic academy and work all day. But you don't want that either, do you?”

Karma lowered himself to look Lucia in the eye.

“Ah, Lucia. Don't make that face. You're making me the bad guy again. I really do want to treat you all well. If only you wouldn't talk back over pointless things like this.”

“It's not as though I want to be here...”

“Right, right. It's nobody's fault. If you insist on blaming someone, blame your parents for spawning a bunch of brats in my guild and then dropping dead, eh? It'll be easier to resent them, Lucia.”

He brushed past, giving her shoulder a tap.

“If you understand, get out of my way.”

Now that Karma had brought her sisters into it, she couldn't resist any further. It was true that he looked after them. Lucia couldn't provide for them all on her own.

They would literally end up begging on the street. And in the marquisate's Sixth District, notorious for its appalling lawlessness, at that.

She also knew that if she angered him any further, he would hit not only her but her sisters too.

He always had.

Lucia stared at Karma's fist, swinging rhythmically with his swaggering gait.

That hand kept her trapped in the guild.

And that hand would kill Hasgard's second son.

'... But I can't just pretend I don't know.'

Her exemption from summer remedial classes had given her time to act. Enough time to follow Karma to the Subjugation Festival.

Back in the present.

The Subjugation Festival had begun in the heart of the green forest.

“Hm?”

Romans, the second son, stirred from his thoughts and looked behind him. Daywin, who was supposed to lead his own troops separately, had started following him.

'Did seeing real goblins frighten him...? Monsters you only read or hear about are bound to feel different from the ones right in front of you.'

Fear. That seemed reason enough for Daywin to suddenly stick close to Romans.

'It's his first time. It's understandable. I was startled my first time too. Yes, Daywin. Better to stay behind me.'

Romans nodded and pulled on his reins. His troops soon reached the goblins' forest.

However weak these monsters might be compared with humans, they were entering enemy territory now. The forest was densely packed with huge trees. Imagining goblins lying in ambush overhead, Romans swallowed hard.

“Slow down from here. Advance carefully. Shields to the front! Prepare for an ambush!”

Soldiers carrying tall shields filled the vanguard to block arrows from the trees.

THUD!

While the soldiers at the front were raising their shields and changing formation—

WHIZZ!

The goblins hiding in the trees loosed their arrows. They intended to sow confusion before the formation was complete.

“Behind the shields! Hold the line!”

Romans's soldiers moved as they had trained. They had expected the goblins to fire arrows from above, and despite the confusion, they soon formed ranks.

CRACK! THUNK!

The shield bearers at the front weathered the volleys.

'... Why are there so many?'

But something was strange.

THUNK!

An arrow slipped past the edge of a shield and buried itself in a soldier's arm. At the soldier's brief scream, Romans gritted his teeth.

The Subjugation Festival was just that—a festival, not a war. Accidents occasionally caused casualties, but it was still partly entertainment.

And yet...

'There are... too many. This is ominous...'

Romans Hasgard ducked behind a shield. The resistance was fiercer than expected. He couldn't even tell how many goblins there were yet.

Even if they broke through this barrage, there was no knowing how many more waited deeper in the forest.

'I don't like this. Something... is wrong.'

At the same time, Daywin turned his head slightly and met Esther's eyes.

“Esther, have you ever heard of House Hasgard?”

He asked her the same question someone had asked Lucia.

At the unexpected question, Esther thought for a moment, then shook her head.

“Well, actually... no...”

“I thought not. To the main characters, our story wouldn't even qualify as a subplot or a side story.”

“... Pardon?”

“It would be nothing but an irrelevant rumor. Something that passes them by, something that doesn't matter if it's erased or forgotten.”

Daywin had begun speaking out of the blue.

“I'm sorry, sir. I don't... really understand.”

He merely laughed off Esther's words.

“Forget it. Like I said, it's just a rumor.”

House Hasgard's story was entirely unrelated to the main plot. It wasn't even mentioned. The descendants of a forgotten hero were of no use to the protagonist and his heroines.

But one extra remembered.

The extra who had survived until the end of the world remembered that insignificant story with aching clarity.

In his previous life, Daywin had awakened extraordinary divine power, but skipped the Subjugation Festival simply because he found it bothersome. He had spent his time lounging alone at the estate.

He could never forget that day, which should have been peaceful and leisurely.

[“Daywin, try not to be shocked by what I'm about to tell you.”]

His eldest brother, always so bright and energetic, stood before him holding back tears.

[“Romans has left us. There was an accident at the Subjugation Festival.”]

Dyer clenched his teeth as though he would shatter his molars, suppressing the turmoil boiling inside him.

Things might have been different if Daywin had come to the festival. Their youngest brother, beloved by the Goddess, might have averted the tragedy.

Both Dyer and Daywin knew that.

His eldest brother's lifeless eyes seemed ready to unleash their resentment at any moment. Daywin thought the days of being indulged were over.

If only you had been there.

If only you hadn't held back your power.

If only you hadn't lived so pathetically.

[“Daywin.”]

Expecting the next words to cut like knives, Daywin squeezed his eyes shut. He wished time would stop right there, but, sadly, Dyer spoke.

[“I'm so glad you didn't come.”]

He pulled Daywin into a tight embrace, his voice full of anguish.

His eldest brother didn't weigh the future that might have been if Daywin had come. Far from resenting him for missing the festival—

[“I'm glad you're safe.”]

He was relieved.

Even as grief and rage dragged Dyer toward madness, he wanted his one remaining younger brother to stay somewhere peaceful.

It was enough for the eldest son to remain in hell.

“Esther, I've never felt so ashamed in my life.”

Daywin would rather his brother had resented him.

Only then had he resolved to live properly, but by then it was too late. Romans's death was merely the beginning of the tragedy. From that point on, House Hasgard slowly approached its destruction.

His thoughts at an end, Daywin reached toward the sky.

The moment he sent his prayer heavenward—

BOOM!

A brilliant shaft of light pierced the clouds and enveloped him.

“Sir...?”

Esther shielded her eyes from the sudden flash with the back of her hand.

When the light withdrew, the Daywin it revealed had changed astonishingly.

Pure white.

Daywin was clad in snow-white armor. The symbol of a paladin who had stepped onto the battlefield to carry out the will of the divine.

The fighting power the last paladin had possessed.

HUMMM...

A ring of light rose behind Daywin's head.