Chapter 286
Chapter 286: Water and Fire (5)
River and Waterspout.
Avery Aquins and Panles Aquins.
'So Waterspout was an Aquins too.'
The one who killed both was Harad.
Waterspout -- Panles Aquins's death was closer to a joint effort, but regardless.
The Otherworld had nobles too.
Where there were nobles, there were naturally factions.
The mages dispatched for this subjugation, Pira included, were mages who either followed or were sponsored by the Aquins.
'An enraged Aquins launched an unsanctioned subjugation. Their power and scale must be considerable.'
Aquins was a prestigious house that had produced two Stars of the Deep Sea.
There might be more if he dug.
Aquins was a bigger player than he'd thought.
"I heard it was the Star of the Sun who killed Avery Aquins."
A Star who'd burned the Watchtower was somewhere in the Boundary.
That Star had killed Psina of the Ivory Tower and Avery Aquins of the Tower of the Deep Sea.
That was what Harad understood.
Forbest of the Live Coals, whom he'd met at the Haunted House, was his source. Meaning it was reliable information.
"Ah. They can't openly say they're going after the Star."
The Red Tower would never have permitted that.
"I see. So that's why they named the Torch as the subjugation target."
Because the justification lay with Aquins.
That prestigious house had lost a Star to Aten.
"Whether it's the Extinguished Torch or the Star of the Sun that falls into the trap, it doesn't matter. If the Star's caught, the Torch will come along, and if the Torch gets caught, that's already a gain in itself."
If the Star was caught in the desert trap, the Extinguished Torch would emerge anyway.
Because Aten, who'd killed Waterspout on the sea route, would be somewhere in the Boundary.
It didn't matter if Aten was caught first.
That was revenge for Waterspout.
Revenge for Avery Aquins -- meaning the Star -- could come later.
"Best case, they catch the Star. If they catch the Torch, that works too. No reason not to subjugate."
All the more so when the targets were fire, which they so despised.
They called it Aquins's unsanctioned operation, but the Tower of the Deep Sea would have welcomed it with open arms.
Harad felt a sense of familiarity.
Nobles on this side or nobles on that side -- what they did behind the scenes was hardly different. In the end, they were all the same people.
"You're sharp."
Pira's compliment sounded more like a curse.
Seemed he'd hit the mark.
"I get that a lot."
"If you've figured it all out, will you leave now?"
As she said that, Pira seemed scared yet also not. Only her desire for survival was vivid.
"To another snow shelter?"
"That's your call. Why ask me?"
That had been a veiled threat -- that they'd go kill her comrades.
Pira genuinely didn't seem to care.
"I'd be grateful if you went. Means you'd be killing those annoying bastards for me again."
If anything, Pira seemed to want her allies dead.
"No camaraderie, I see."
"Something has to come before something goes."
It appeared Pira wasn't exactly treated well.
"Maybe something has to go before something comes."
"Shut up if you don't know anything."
"Fair enough."
Harad shrugged.
"Don't worry. There are sickening numbers of Aquins mages. None of them bother memorizing faces. Except a cautious bitch like me."
"Why be cautious? You seemed quite capable."
"......"
Pira didn't answer.
Harad had a rough idea.
If there were nobles, there were those beneath them.
Perhaps even further below.
"Factory."
When he said that, Pira flinched.
Her eyes turned feral, like a hunted animal's.
"The fire of unknown identity. The Star who burned the Watchtower -- that's you, isn't it?"
Fighting meant death.
For Pira, who'd cooperated to survive, that retort was the best response she had. A declaration that you're not the only one who knows things.
"That was a mistake."
And simultaneously, it was a mistake.
The weak couldn't seize an opponent's weakness. Because it put them in danger.
"If you go there, I can't let you live."
Pira should have known and feigned ignorance.
"......"
Pira bit her lip.
Blood streamed down through the gap between her biting canines.
"I won't tell anyone...... I swear on my life. Please leave."
"Normally, I wouldn't believe that."
Harad glanced behind him.
The squad leader and his mages had gone to report the Torch's possible sighting to Aquins. The next report might be about the appearance of a Star.
"I mean it. I have absolutely no intention of stabbing you in the back. I'm the kind of bitch who values her own life above everything in this world. Kill the other mages. Just spare me."
He hadn't particularly planned to spare her.
There was no reason to leave behind a potential threat.
Would Ellen think the same?
Harad wanted to check Ellen's face. Pira dropped to her knees before him.
"I'll give you information you need."
"What information?"
"Don't go to the Otherworld. The other Towers will target you. The Red Tower as it stands doesn't have the power to protect you."
"They're after the Magical Items the King left behind?"
Pira nodded vigorously.
At the end of the Watchtower's smoke lay Magical Items the Sun had left behind.
Currently, Harad was the only one who knew their location.
"Most of the Red Tower's forces are outside. So go back outside. And ask for help."
The fires of the Otherworld had left for the continent, unable to contain their temperaments.
To find the King, or to defy the Moon's prophecy and forge their own destiny.
"Eiga Akker. If it's him, he'll welcome you."
An unexpected name spilled from Pira's lips.
"Is he someone impressive?"
Harad played ignorant.
"He's one of the mages the Red Tower prides itself on. A fire compared to Extinguished Torch Aten."
Eiga had called Aten "that bastard."
He was a big enough figure to get away with it.
"What's your relationship with Eiga Akker?"
Harad asked.
'Same Factory.'
And he answered alone, in silence.
In retrospect, Pira had reacted to Harad's fire.
Not to Ellen's Aura.
There was no reason for him to speak first.
Rather, Pira needed to arrive at Harad's answer herself.
"......That's none of your business."
Pira answered, then bit her lip again.
Proof that she'd knowingly given the wrong answer.
As it turned out, her own life wasn't the most precious thing after all.
She was someone who needed her life for something more precious still.
"Eiga Akker's Origin was Volcano."
Harad said.
Pira flinched hard.
"At first, he pretended it was Volcanic Ash."
"......What?"
"If it's Eiga Akker, that means I preyed on him."
Harad smiled the way Aten used to.
***
To Elaine of the past life.
The most precious thing had been the north. Had it really? What about now? And Ellen?
Harad had grown curious about what Pira's most precious thing was.
Deciding whether to kill her or not could come after.
It was because of Eiga Akker.
If he could see inside that man's head, then a single loose end was a small price to pay.
"His heart was nice and tender."
"Die!"
Pira screamed.
Harad cackled.
"Like Eiga?"
Answers came pouring out.
The snow shelter, transformed at some point into a cluster of droplets, collapsed. Each droplet was both an attack and a spell. No -- calling them mere spells felt inadequate.
'Projection.'
The droplets shot diagonally, at a slant.
The angle and speed were like arrows being loosed. Wind accompanied the rain.
'Wind-driven rain.'
A single raindrop guided by wind was sharper than any arrow. Every hair on his body stood on end. Far more droplets than that were pouring down.
If the opponent had used Projection, he needed to Project too.
Only on equal footing could the vagueness of Origin reveal its true worth. Though one person's best was merely ordinary to another.
Harad's left eye darkened to pitch black. Wind surged from below. That solar wind bent the raindrops' trajectories. The rain that had been the snow shelter veered past Harad and Ellen.
It didn't reach the desert.
Because flames erupted before it could. Fire materialized without warning and swelled like a mountain. It wasn't fire blooming amid rain -- it was rain falling inside fire.
An endlessly vague spectacle.
Within it, Pira's jaw dropped. She stared up at the fire that imprisoned her.
"A Star."
Pira murmured.
The power of preconception. With mere Simple Projection, she hadn't recognized the Sun. Not everyone would be so blind.
"......Aquins will kill you."
"I'll spare you. As promised, just answer my questions."
"Get lost."
Pira no longer seemed to have any attachment to life.
"What's your relationship with Eiga?"
Harad pictured the Aquins house he'd never laid eyes on. Pira was consumed by vengeance just as that house was. The aftereffects of her broken Projection trickled from her eyes like tears.
"An intimate relationship?"
"Shut up."
"Same Factory?"
Bullseye.
Pira's eyes went wide.
Northeaster.
Harad recalled Peneon of the Tower of Storms. He'd said this before he died.
"This is why Factory-born......"
"Shut up!"
Just as Eiga had then, Pira snapped.
Factory seemed to be a reverse scale for those born there.
"What does some bastard from outside know......!"
RUMBLE--! The sound of rain gathering echoed vaguely. Blood poured from Pira's eyes like a waterfall.
She was trying to force a Projection. Harad's blackened eyes gleamed again.
That was when.
"She's really going to die at this rate."
Ellen, who'd been standing silently behind Harad, spoke.
"I'm trying to kill her."
"Liar."
Ellen poked Harad's back with a finger.
When he turned, she was smiling as if she knew everything.
"I didn't show you my face."
"I don't need to see it to know what I know. This isn't how you expected things to go, is it?"
"......"
"You should kill her by rights, but it's not going the way you want?"
Ellen struck the mark.
This was the Otherworld. He should kill her. Then what about Eiga?
'He's useful.'
That was why he'd kept Eiga alive. And Pira?
"Find out more. Do what you want to do."
Ellen spoke in a whisper.
A whisper more powerful than any wind. The fire that had swelled like a mountain vanished without a trace.
"I'll buy time until then. Me."
Ellen said, scanning the wide-open expanse around them. The unfinished channel was bleeding water into the desert.
That was why the fire had risen.
Aquins's subjugation force had spotted the fire.
"On your own, you can't......"
Impossible.
Harad was about to say it, then shut his mouth. Certainty was written on Ellen's face.
"I feel like I'm going to dream. Must be because of Aquins."
Just like when she'd faced Avery Aquins.
Ellen sensed it, and she was certain.
"......Thank you."
"Oh, come on. Between us?"
Before he knew it, Ellen's eyes had gone hazy.
Half-closed, yet all the more viscous for it. Harad felt like he was sinking into a swamp.
"Die!"
Pira shattered the mood.
"......If it were Eiga, he wouldn't have died."
"What?"
"He'd be at my side instead. A comrade, in a sense."
"......"
"I was testing you because I wanted to learn more about Eiga."
Pira blinked.
Harad pointed at the desert flooding with water.
"Got a plan?"
"......No, you crazy bastard."
That was when.
The water flowing from the channel split into two streams.
One ran toward them, the other in the opposite direction.
"The Torch!"
From the opposite direction, someone bellowed like thunder.
"The Torch has appeared!"
That couldn't be right.
"......Don't tell me the Torch is your comrade too?"
Pira asked.
"Who knows."
"Is this really the time for that? You said you're comrades with Eiga!"
Pira looked frantic.
Even suffering from aftereffects, she approached Harad. She seemed ready to help the moment he said the word.
It appeared Pira cared more about Eiga than the Tower of the Deep Sea.
"What's the Factory?"
"I'll tell you everything. Just explain first."
"If it's Aten, I killed him."
"Fuck, is this really the time?!"
Pira didn't believe him.
"The Torch has appeared!"
A voice thundered from afar.