Chapter 187 - Blazing Fire (2)

3

A drumbeat echoes through the dark space.

BOOOM...

No, it isn't a drumbeat. Boom. It sounds like footsteps, but no one is moving their feet, so it isn't that either. Boom. Boom. Boom. The actors already scattered across the isolated stage—the one-eyed, the one-armed, and the one-eared—whip their heads toward the sound.

There I am.

Wreathed in fire from head to toe, I crawl out onto the stage.

"Wagar..."

The Flame Emperor.

The actors' shoulders tremble.

"Kar..."

"Ke."

"Karkasa..."

A fearful trembling. Carrying every vibration on their tongues, the actors whisper among themselves like snakes submerged in shadow.

"Shi."

"Rak."

"Gur."

This is not the language of today. Long ago, in the age when they gathered acorns beneath primordial trees, voices and words had yet to become distinct. The actors murmur in the whispers of that age. Shi. Rak. Gur. Shi. Rak. Gur.

"..."

The unsettling whispers have silenced the audience before they know it.

The Hobgoblins cannot understand the language their ancestors muttered in ancient times.

But understanding is all they lack.

The audience holds its breath. These green-skinned beasts can feel the menace and unease that their own vocal cords give voice to most naturally.

"Shi."

"Rak."

"Gur."

The actors circle me fearfully. Shi. With each step they take, my aura resonates, playing music. Rak. When their steps slow, the music slows with them. Gur. When their steps draw closer to me, the music gradually grows more violent.

"Wagar."

My flames spread across the dark stage.

[Yes.]

I crawl on all fours like a beautiful creature of savagery.

[I am the Flame Emperor.]

A growling groan spills from my mouth.

The approaching actors falter and flinch.

[I am the fire of the world.]

My voice transforms into aura.

A beastlike snarl escapes my maw.

[I am one who has succeeded.]

The stage floor shakes, and the air in the pitch-black audience trembles.

Aura reeking of blood.

The melody is strange, the rhythm bizarre. Shi-rak-gur. An utterly uncanny music rings out. Shi-rak-gur. At the sneering laughter that insults the world and mocks its people, the spectators in the front row shudder and hunch their shoulders.

[Envy me. Resent me. Worship me.]

All that escapes my mouth is the hiss, hiss of a flickering tongue. No further words are needed. I do not speak through words; I give voice through aura.

[The world is nothing but firewood to make me burn a little brighter.]

Shi.

[I find your jealousy tiresome. Because I want you to recognize my annoyance. Fire cannot burn alone. You insignificant beings shall dwell around me as an endless supply of fuel.]

Rak.

[I laugh at my own success. And thus I laugh all the louder at you who cannot succeed. I mock the attention you give me. And so I mock all the more loudly those of you who receive no attention.]

Gur.

[I am humble.]

[I survey all things with indifferent eyes. I regard all living things with an impassive face. Even my own success loses its heat before my eyes. Yet because I have succeeded more than anyone, I constantly remind you of my success.]

[With indifferent eyes.]

[With an impassive face.]

[And thus your success ceases to be success. Since you have not succeeded, your hardships become worthless. From your greatest hardship to your smallest success, everything is insignificant, insignificant before me.]

I step forward on a forepaw.

The flames flare.

Startled, the actors scatter in a rush. They have fled.

"Wagar!"

A smile catches on my teeth.

[You act as though you were people.]

[But there is only one person in the world.]

[The name of that one person is 'I.']

The fire burns ever more fiercely.

Flames coil around the stage and swallow the audience seating.

"Eek."

Groans rise here and there among the seats.

One spectator instinctively summons aura to resist my fire.

My smile deepens—and the music rings louder.

[Only I am human.]

My flames seize the spectator's aura and twist it effortlessly.

Then six tongues of fire gently stroke his neck.

"... Urk..."

The spectator in the front row convulses. Had they said he was the twenty-first-ranked warrior? His eyes are wide, cold sweat streaming down him.

The theater is already an inferno.

[I present my success and say, 'It is nothing.']

[Then what are you, who have failed to achieve even nothing?]

[Not even nothingness.]

[You must be dust that has become nothing at all.]

The Flame Emperor's laughter.

The Flame Emperor's arm movements.

Wearing the Flame Emperor's smile, I look around the stage.

The actor who meets my eyes, one-eyed Arika, flinches.

[I love beasts that bare their tender throats.]

I charge.

One-eyed Arika screams and runs.

[The innocence of trusting someone. The naivety of revealing yourself.]

[These are tender enough to swallow in a single bite!]

Flames rise where Arika tries to flee.

With an "Eek!" he turns and runs another way.

Once again, I block him with a curtain of fire.

I drive my prey into a corner.

"Spare me!"

Arika opens and closes his mouth.

That is all he does; his voice cannot actually ring out.

Just as aura can produce sound, it can also block it.

I snatch Arika's scream midway and crush it.

[Why do you run?]

"Spare me! Please..."

[Do not run. I am your father.]

Arika cries out until his voice turns hoarse.

"Please! Let me live, don't kill me... Don't kill me...!"

But his voice does not reach the audience.

Seen from the seats, Arika merely opens and closes his mouth desperately, thrashing about.

"..."

Holding their breath, the audience watches his soundless death throes.

[My child.]

I amble toward Arika.

[I will not hurt you.]

I imprison him behind curtains of fire.

I press him back, leaving him less and less room to move.

Arika sinks to the floor like a little child trapped in a tiny single-room home.

"Don't kill me..."

[It's all right.]

"Please..."

The one-eyed child sheds tears.

"Save me, Mom..."

Then.

I open my maw and bite Arika's neck.

My fangs do not pierce his skin.

Instead, aura seeps into his flesh, bearing murderous intent.

"Aaaaaaagh!"

Arika struggles frantically.

He howls, engulfed in pain.

I no longer contain the sound. I let the screams burst out and echo through the theater.

"Aaaagh! Aaaaaagh!"

The audience, who until now had watched nothing but silent struggles, recoils at the screams that suddenly erupt. A death impossible to regard as "acting" is unfolding before their eyes.

"What..."

"Th-that..."

Some swallow hard. Some groan. A few in the back rows truly mistake it for reality, rise from their seats, and flee the theater.

But most of the audience stares blankly at the stage, bewitched by the flames.

[I am the fire of the world.]

The hunt does not stop.

In the heart of the inferno.

I become a beast drunk on blood and run in search of my next victim.

One-armed Yumar and one-eared Sakum flee, screaming.

"Save me!"

The music flows.

"It's coming after us! The monster is coming after us!"

I am not at fault.

If there is any fault in me, it is the fault of the world that gave birth to me. The blame belongs to the world that made me this way.

People merely wind along the bends of the world.

They inevitably live as they were made, so where is my fault in that?

[Let us dance!]

Shi, rak, gur.

[All the world is my stage!]

Shi. Rak. Gur.

[Do not resent me. I am no different from you. Like you, I am merely a being born of this world.]

[I am simply stronger than you.]

[It is nature's law that the weak are devoured by the strong. Shouldn't you blame the world, rather than me?]

Flames in riotous bloom.

I become the wild itself and romp about.

I spew fire to my heart's content, sink my teeth in wherever I please.

"Aaaaaagh!"

One-armed Yumar falls. I bring down one-eared Sakum.

It is all right. They are beasts.

To a human, a beast is merely meat, so this is not the murder of people, but merely the slaughter of flesh.

BOOM!

The drumbeat grows fiercer.

BOOM!

Bloodred flames burn through the theater.

Even after all three actors have fallen, my roaring shows no sign of stopping. Shi! Rak! Gur! The audience trembles. Trembling, they watch the dancing aura seethe and sizzle onstage.

"Mmph...!"

One young spectator faints. Foaming at the mouth, they slump onto the shoulder of the person beside them, but that person is frozen stiff and cannot help.

BOOM!

At last, the music reaches its climax.

A group bursts through the theater doors, flinging them open with a crash.

"Everyone, freeze! We are the security force under the Fire River Council!"

Brawny Hobgoblins swarm around the audience seating.

"Everyone, freeze! Everyone, freeze!"

"We responded to a report of mass murder and arson at this location! Anyone who ignores our warning and moves will be arrested as a subversive!"

That is the turning point.

The air, stretched taut with tension, snaps like a cord.

Only then does the audience barely manage to release the breaths they have been holding.

"Gasp."

"Haa... ah, phew...!"

Here and there, spectators crumple like collapsing shells.

Even the strength in their waists has deserted them, sending them sliding out of their seats.

"Hmm."

My immersion broken as well, I frowned at the officers. I had no idea how serious a report they had received to come barging in like this, but the security-force Hobgoblins were keeping watch in every direction.

"Rescue people first!"

"Where's the arsonist?"

"There are people down on the stage!"

The Hobgoblins rushed toward the actors. One-eyed Arika, one-armed Yumar, one-eared Sakum. Seeing the three lying onstage, they had mistaken them for dead bodies.

Naturally, there were no deaths in this performance.

"No... hold on."

"Y-you don't need to help me up. I'm fine!"

Waving their hands in refusal, the actors got up one by one.

"Are you hurt anywhere? Any wounds? Is your head all right?"

"N-no injuries! I'm completely fine!"

"We heard a massacre was taking place here. Where did the perpetrator flee? Were you being held hostage?"

"What..."

One-eyed Arika looked incredulous.

"What massacre? What hostages? None of that happened."

One-armed Yumar shouted.

"We're acting, you lunatics!"

The officers hesitated.

"... Acting?"

"Yes! We're performing! We're a theater troupe! Theater Troupe Bullshit! This is a theater, and we were in the middle of a play!"

"..."

For the record, the officers had restrained me based on their own mistaken assumptions. I could have broken free whenever I wished, but I was so dumbfounded that I had simply cooperated.

The officers slowly turned toward me.

"We received a report of a fire..."

I nodded.

Aura flared at my fingertip.

"It's my aura. It looks like fire."

"... They said some beast had bitten innocent people to death."

"I'm playing the son of a bitch, and those senior actors over there are playing the victims. Naturally, I brought them down during the play."

In other words.

"The acting must have been so convincing that someone reported it."

"..."

By this point, the officers had indeed realized something was wrong. Bewilderment replaced wariness in their expressions, awkwardness replaced murderous intent.

The audience had already begun to stir.

"What the hell?"

"Who reported it...?"

Their reactions quickly grew heated.

"What about the performance?"

"You're not ending it here, are you?"

"What's going on?!"

"Those moronic security-force losers!"

"Back to your old habit of barging in first and asking questions later?!"

An uproar rose.

As complaints came from every direction, the officer in charge rapidly grew pale.

Smiling broadly, I approached the officer in charge.

"What do we do now, sir? It looks like today's performance has been ruined."

"Uh..."

"Our apologies, dear guests! Due to this unfortunate incident, today's performance ends here! In accordance with the security force's [Everyone, freeze] warning, we of Theater Troupe Bullshit have stopped! Please follow the officers' directions and leave... in an orderly fashion. Oh, but..."

I beamed at the officer.

"Will you cover the ticket refunds?"

"..."

The audience erupted.

That day, the city's theater scene erupted too.

Because of [the play so realistic that someone reported it to the authorities].