Chapter 252 - By the Power of the Scales, I Command You

* * *

Quetzalcoatl headquarters.

As befitted the world's foremost pharmaceutical company, its lobby was normally bustling with visitors of every kind. Today, however, it was deathly quiet.

It wasn't that there were no visitors. They had simply all fallen silent of their own accord, making the place feel unusually bleak.

The cause was the strange atmosphere hanging over Quetzalcoatl headquarters.

Not only had the security personnel doubled, but every member of the Green Dragon Clan exuded a murderous air—from the doctors and researchers in white coats to the receptionists, whose smiles should have been a matter of course.

'... What's going on?'

Most visitors were bewildered by the peculiar atmosphere, yet none dared ask why. Over hundreds of years, the people of South America had learned a bitter lesson about what happened when they incurred the Green Dragon Clan's resentment. Offending them was the ultimate taboo.

Though they knew what effect they were having on those around them, not a single member of the Green Dragon Clan softened their expression.

There was only one reason: the incident in the laboratory.

Assassins infiltrating Quetzalcoatl headquarters would have been shocking enough, but their princess herself had been attacked. Naturally, the Green Dragon Clan could only sharpen their knives.

Yet one person among them radiated an especially murderous air.

"Unconscious, you say?"

"Yes. Her Highness personally intervened, so she's past the worst of it. But it seems her body entered a state of suspended animation on its own when she was on the verge of death."

"Then when will she wake up?"

"It's hard to say. At the earliest, she might wake within a few days, but..."

"... You mean she might never wake up."

"That's unlikely, so don't worry too much. You know perfectly well which martial school Arbella practices, don't you?"

Barbara did not answer. She merely gazed through the glass wall into the intensive care unit, at Arbella lying unconscious in its center, before speaking quietly.

"Much of the blame is mine."

"What are you talking about?"

"I should have become Her Highness's chief attendant long ago."

If she had distinguished herself sooner and earned recognition as Maia's attendant—if she had been at Maia's side when this happened—she would never have done something as stupid as throwing herself into harm's way like Arbella.

As Barbara ground out those words, the old woman in a white coat, Elder Giselle, furrowed her brow.

"Watch your tongue. Don't you realize that allowing you and Arbella to become Her Highness's attendants at all was an extraordinary privilege?"

"..."

Barbara remained silent.

Ordinarily, attendants to a princess of the Seven Dragons Society—especially the Green Dragon Princess—were master-level experts. Even if they came from a prestigious family, choosing her and Arbella, who were still merely unit-captain caliber, as Maia's attendants had been an unprecedented exception.

"... Of course, given what happened to Carla, I understand why you would say such a thing."

Giselle knew why Maia had made such an exception, and so she did not blame Barbara. The very fact that the sisters competed so fiercely for the position of chief attendant proved they had not forgotten what had happened to their mother, Carla.

"But make no mistake."

That did not mean Giselle would let Barbara's ill-chosen words pass entirely.

"Serving as Her Highness's attendant is an honor, and giving our lives for her is our duty as members of the clan."

Giving one's life for the princess was only natural. In that sense, Arbella deserved praise for throwing herself forward to protect Maia, however foolish the act might have been.

If Barbara allowed personal affection to make her forget that fundamental truth, Giselle would convene the council of elders and strip her of her position.

Barbara was silent for a moment as Giselle sternly admonished her, acting as an elder of the clan before she was her teacher. Then she bowed her head slightly and spoke.

"Please take good care of Arbella."

"Tsk. As though I wouldn't."

Giselle clicked her tongue as Barbara turned and left with nothing more to say. Then she turned back, gazed steadily at Arbella, who was hooked up to an array of life-support equipment, and murmured.

"This, too, is an inescapable fate... Foolish girls."

Their mother, Carla, and those who had served the previous princess—all the attendants to successive Green Dragon Princesses had accepted their fate and taken pride in it.

Even as she lamented her inadequate pupils, who lacked even the most basic mindset required of an attendant, Giselle's eyes grew cold.

"Don't be too disappointed, Arbella. Even if you die, your journey will not be a lonely one."

* * *

After leaving the intensive care unit, Barbara went straight to the artificial garden. Maia's expression hardened when she heard Barbara's report on Arbella's condition.

But only for a moment. Soon, she sneered coldly.

"Hmph. Unconscious over something so trivial? That tells me just how badly Arbella has neglected her training."

It was far too cold a thing to say about an attendant who had thrown herself forward to protect her—especially in front of that attendant's sister. But Barbara did not lose her temper. Instead, she bowed her head and asked forgiveness.

"On Arbella's behalf, I apologize for causing you needless concern."

"I refuse."

Maia's response was curt. She glared at Barbara and added,

"I have no intention of accepting an apology delivered through someone else's mouth. When that fool wakes up, tell her to beg my forgiveness herself."

"... I will tell her."

Maia snorted at Barbara, who barely managed an answer and could not bring herself to raise her head. Then she asked in a cold voice,

"What of the follow-up measures?"

"Decontamination of the laboratory is complete. A great deal of medical equipment was damaged, but we should still be able to restore it within a few days."

"I couldn't care less about that rubbish. What I want to know is who sent them."

The laboratory had contained plenty of medical equipment costing billions or even tens of billions. Yet Maia dismissed it all as mere rubbish.

Barbara answered her with a rigid expression.

"After investigating how the test subjects came into our possession, we discovered that the police chief had been bribed with ambrosia and deliberately funneled them to us."

"What action did you take?"

"We tortured him to uncover who was behind it, then detained him."

Kidnapping, torturing, and imprisoning a police chief—an outrage possible only in a country with public order as chaotic as Brazil's, and only for the Green Dragon Clan.

But Maia asked her next question without so much as twitching an eyebrow.

"Who was behind him?"

"As you expected, a gang with ties to the Forest Guild."

"Hmph. So obvious it's almost boring."

Maia snorted. From the moment gang members had been used as assassins, she had been certain the Forest Guild—or, more precisely, the Monster Monarch Gula—was behind this. In South America, only the Green Dragon Clan and the Forest Guild could command gangs as though they were extensions of their own bodies.

There was only one problem. Even knowing that, she had no way to retaliate just yet.

"Have you still not located the Forest Guild's stronghold?"

"... My apologies."

It was an absurd answer. Not knowing where one of the ten great guilds was based was as preposterous as not knowing the location of a country's capital.

Yet Maia was not even disappointed. A few years ago might have been another matter, but it was only natural that no one knew where the Forest Guild's headquarters was now.

Because...

"No apology is necessary. His fleeing into the Amazon was not your fault, Barbara."

... Maia herself was the one who had demolished the Forest Guild's former headquarters, a place more lavish than most royal palaces.

That was why she frowned. Ultimately, all of this had happened because she had failed to finish the job properly back then. But there was no point regretting it now.

She issued her orders dispassionately.

"Send the bribed police chief to Laboratory 13."

"Laboratory 13... You mean the narcotics research laboratory?"

"Since he is so fond of drugs, I shall grant him the honor of being the first to experience the new narcotics we have developed."

Maia smiled coldly. However remarkable the Green Dragon Clan's pharmaceutical skills might be, developing only narcotics with few side effects was no easy task. Sampling just a few of those with the worst side effects would turn even a high-level player, let alone an ordinary person, into a wreck within days.

"Shouldn't everyone know what becomes of those who betray us?"

"... I will instruct them to send him back once the experiments are finished."

After passing through Laboratory 13, even in the mildest case, he would go mad from withdrawal within a few months, thrash about, and tear out his own throat until he died.

That would be enough to remind people what sort of people the Green Dragon Clan were.

"How should we proceed with tracking down the Forest Guild?"

"There is no need to track them."

"No need...?"

Barbara looked bewildered. She had naturally expected orders to find them by any means necessary. She had even prepared to turn the entire South American continent upside down, never imagining Maia would give such an instruction.

Maia curled her lip at her.

"I do not mean to give up. I mean to entrust the search to someone better suited to the task."

"...?"

"With that in mind, Barbara, there is something I need you to do immediately."

* * *

A little while later, Limon, summoned by Barbara, looked at Maia with an unenthusiastic expression.

"... You want me to find the Forest Guild's headquarters?"

"Indeed."

"All by myself?"

It was a truly ridiculous order. There were limits even to searching for a needle in the sand. Finding a single guild in the Amazon, which accounted for more than half the world's tropical rainforests, was not a job to assign to one person—not even a Sword Master.

But Maia's answer was clear.

"Finding prey is a job for a hunting dog, is it not?"

"I'm a slave, not a hunting dog."

"But a slave's duty is to do whatever their mistress commands. Is that not so?"

"Well, that's true."

After scratching his cheek for a moment, Limon casually asked,

"But are you really sure you're all right with this?"

"Is there any reason I should not be?"

"If I actually find the Forest Guild's stronghold, those weights will tip quite a bit."

Limon glanced between his wrist and Maia's with a meaningful expression. Despite her elbow-length gloves, he could clearly see the white scales tattooed on her wrist.

At present, their scales were balanced, with five weights belonging to each of them. But if Limon distinguished himself as a slave, the black weights would increase accordingly, granting him coercive power over Maia.

Could she really afford to take that risk? Limon's question was deliberately mischievous.

"Do you think so?"

"...?"

"It is about time."

There was no way she could be ignorant of such an obvious principle. Yet Maia wore a cold sneer instead.

As Limon narrowed his eyes at her, a change occurred.

CLICK, RATTLE.

Just as he heard something rolling, two black beads suddenly rolled to the opposite side of the scales tattooed on Limon's and Maia's wrists, and the scales began tipping sharply to one side.

Limon blinked as the evenly balanced 5:5 weights changed to 7:3 in an instant. Maia curled her lip.

"Since you swore on your sword, it must be true that these weights have the power to compel the other party. Is that not so?"

"... Why are you asking me to confirm that?"

"By the power of the scales, I command you."

Limon wore a look of disbelief. Watching him with a sneer, Maia issued a 『command』 in a voice as sharp as a blade.

"Harm yourself."

WHOOSH!

And at that moment, Maia's scales shone. A single weight in the tattoo vanished as though evaporating, and Limon's hand, which had somehow seized the carving knife, plunged into his own neck.