Chosen by the Northern Grand Duke

Chapter 230: Neighbor (2)

Mature Mages roughly sense it.

Ah, I've been caught, they realize.

It's an instinct, a sense of awareness that develops from surviving long enough to become mature.

Though he had lived in the relatively safe Serzila, Harad prided himself on having sharper instincts than most Mages on the continent.

That was because he had served as Grand Duke Elaine's escort knight.

He possessed a Magical Item that made Magical power appear as Aura, but in truth, that hadn't been much of an advantage.

Every single person he met alongside Elaine at external events had been a major figure.

No matter the Magical Item's performance, Harad had no choice but to be cautious.

The Great Plains east of Serzila.

Back then. Under the light of the Projection that burned the Rebellion Faction of Liberation Tower, Seria had called out for Laan and radiance in her sleep.

I've been caught, Harad had sensed intuitively.

There was no doubt in that instinct. It was the instinct that had protected him until his regression.

That was why Harad showed no sign of it.

It was the obvious choice for a Mage.

It was a choice a priest should never make.

If suspicion arose, a priest was supposed to bring charges. No matter how small or trivial that suspicion might be.

Yet Seria showed no sign of it.

"Why did you do that?"

That choice, Harad couldn't understand.

"Were you ashamed of your misunderstanding?"

If so, she should have purified Harad all the more.

Because demons were that cunning.

"Because you survived with a demon's help?"

If she served Laan, she should have been all the more enraged.

Since it happened due to her own insufficient faith.

"Because a demon killed a demon?"

What meaning would that have?

They were creatures who stole and ate each other's hearts. That was why they were demons.

Before Seria stood such a demon.

On the Great Plains, on the sea, and now.

Not even a simple demon, but a demon of fire.

A demon who dared imitate Laan's fire despite being a demon, the kind of demon the Church expressed as most unforgivable.

"Why aren't you falling into agitation?"

Even after committing the disgrace of mistaking a demon's Magic for Laan's radiance twice.

Even after knowing three times that Harad was a demon.

"......"

Seria was not falling into agitation.

Those eyes only trembled, betraying the light.

She was a special priest he hadn't encountered in his previous life.

"Is it because of Ellen?"

"......Ellen has Aura."

"But she's a demon worshiper. Since she's hiding me."

"That's right."

Seria turned her gaze toward Ellen.

It was very brief. Soon her gaze shifted between the two of them. Harad noticed she was keeping both him and Ellen in her field of vision.

"How long have the two of you been like this?"

"From the beginning."

Not because of Harad, not because of Ellen.

Because of Harad and Ellen.

"Did you bewitch me?"

"If we had, you would have fallen into agitation. Is that light so flimsy?"

"......"

"You were the one who discovered something personal in us. Not us."

It was Seria who had woven the connection.

Even while suspecting that Harad was a Mage.

Even after Harad said he disliked the Church.

"Why did you do that?"

"That demon put people into shadows."

Instead of answering, Seria pointed at Jis.

"You're right. That's how I moved the twelve from the sailing ship."

"Twelve......"

Seria's lips moved.

"Why did you kill them?"

"Didn't I just say I moved them?"

"I'm talking about the Great Devil of fire."

Why did you kill Torch?

"You're both demons of fire, aren't you?"

It was a valid point.

Demons were rare, and among them fire was even rarer.

It had been a reunion with a kindred spirit, so to speak.

However, Harad laughed bitterly for quite a while.

To him, it was a question that deserved such a reaction.

"Not all people are the same just because they're people. Not everyone who can speak is a person either."

Seria's brow twitched.

She seemed displeased that he had compared Torch to people.

"Why did I kill them? Revenge. Revenge for killing my family and turning my home to ashes."

"......"

"My name is Harad Iagar."

"The demon's family."

Seria flinched and muttered.

Thus was Iagar such a famous family.

Because it was annihilated by a demon of fire. Moreover, because that demon had been the family's only heir.

"That's right. That demon is me."

"......"

"What do you think? Do I look like one?"

Harad lightly spread both arms.

Unfortunately, there was nothing like a tail or wings.

"I am a demon. A demon who burned people to death."

Seria stirred.

To her, people meant neighbors.

"But our family wasn't. They were all inadequate people. Not demons."

"Are you saying you killed to honor people?"

"No. I killed myself."

Harad shook his head.

There was no such grand reason for revenge. It was simply resentment.

"I'm a petty demon."

"Demon......"

Seria muttered.

To her, demons were enemies that must be purified.

"Why did the Great Devil of fire attack Iagar?"

Seria asked.

Harad thought that question was quite meaningless. What meaning could a demon's reasons have?

"Even beasts calculate profit and loss, but only people bother with justifications."

Harad spat out the same words he had once said before.

"But surprisingly, there is a justification."

Harad pointed at the sky.

There hung a complete sun.

Though it was manifested in simplified form, it was the cherished wish Aten the cold Torch had so desired.

"Because my Origin is the sun."

Instead of answering, Seria looked up at the sun.

No matter how long she looked, she did not fall into agitation.

Was it because she was young, or because she was special?

If special, then who made her so?

Harad hoped it was Seria herself.

***

The Guillotine.

That brutal name was somewhat exaggerated.

Because she hadn't yet purified that many, or such powerful demons.

However, it was satisfying.

The more so, the more demons feared Seria, and the more powerful demons targeted her.

For a priest, it was light rightfully given, a destiny to be walked.

Purification was the will of the gods, but judgment was the priest's burden.

Seria knew well enough that among the heads executed on the guillotine, some might not have been demons.

Because she was an inadequate priest.

One who frequently went mad, who had to confess her mistaken judgments and her own shortcomings every single night.

It was common for priests to fall into agitation.

But there was no priest who fell into agitation as frequently as Seria. When she considered herself inadequate, the Church interpreted her as special.

However, in Seria's thinking, that interpretation didn't particularly resonate as special.

What she needed was resolve.

And prayer.

The determination not to go mad easily, the resolution to burst her own head immediately if she felt herself going mad.

Confession that those condemned might not have been demons, repentance that even so she must not give up but reflect and move forward......

'Demon!'

Someone screamed.

It was her own voice, having gone mad, and she soon snapped out of it.

That was her partner's role.

In Serzila, Ellen had taken that on.

She had helped with the determination. Furthermore, she had protected those who might be neighbors, and reduced the time for confession that night.

That grateful neighbor had a man.

Capable, but anyone nearby could tell that wasn't why they were together.

They seemed like fresh lovers, or perhaps the stage before that. She had thought it looked good. She had thought, so Serzila is human too.

If she had known beforehand that Harad was a demon.

Then would that scene be interpreted differently?

Would it transform from fresh lovers into a demon and a woman bewitched by a demon?

Does it mean bewitched?

That great Serzila. That tyrant.

The knights of the barrier born to tear apart the Otherworld.

How could that be possible?

Each demon's talent was only one.

That inadequacy was the very definition of a demon. Harad's talent was fire. Blasphemously, the sun, he had said.

That talent, and the name Serzila, proved Ellen was not bewitched.

Ellen associated with Harad, with a Mage, of her own will. She loved that demon of fire. Thus she had forcibly stolen the lips of the demon who killed a demon.

Seria's friend.

Her neighbor had defined the demon Harad as a neighbor.

Then was that neighbor also a neighbor to Seria?

Or not.

Should she purify them together? That lovely neighbor?

'Harad.'

Harad, who had resolved revenge for dead neighbors and finally accomplished it.

'What is.'

A demon?

It was a ridiculous, pathetic, shameful question.

The very thought itself was no different from heresy.

"......The twelve on the sailing ship. What were they?"

"To Ellen, they were people. To me, they were Mages. Mages who had resolved to seek asylum out of fear of the Church."

"......"

"What were they to you?"

Demons.

As proof, Seria had fallen into agitation at the time.

The light, her faith, had whispered that she must deliver purification to them. That was the will of the gods.

Seria remembered every single face of the demons she had killed. It was natural. She had to remember those faces so the hellfire that burned demons would be maintained for eons.

Those faces were diverse.

And as ordinary as any humans.

Crying, despairing, pleading, raging, struggling...... she felt only abomination. Because despite being demons, they were pretending to be human.

—Why didn't you purify them?

Inquisitor Badelots had asked.

—You could have purified them then, certainly.

They were demons.

She should have delivered the will of the gods, and she could have.

To men and women, elderly and children, those twelve abominable demons disguised with tears and resignation instead of struggle, she should have delivered judgment.

......Yet why.

"Why didn't you kill them?"

Harad asked.

Thus that man sometimes acted like someone who could see right through people.

"......"

Seria couldn't answer.

Because her eyes were looking at that answer.

Ellen and Harad.

From those two's relationship, Seria had glimpsed it.

She had thought Harad and Ellen looked good together.

In truth, Harad had been a demon.

Just from learning that truth, what had looked good became abominable.

Even though Harad didn't have such a talent.

Even knowing Ellen was bewitched not by a demon but by Harad.

Ellen.

Had loved, realized, and confessed with her lips.

Harad had been flustered.

Was that sight truly abominable?

In truth, Seria knew it wasn't abominable.

The abominable thing was something else.

That was why she had denied it even while knowing Harad was a demon. Because she wanted to look away.

Because she had realized the possibility.

"......If a demon."

If not a demon.

"If a dog speaks and acts like a person, is it a person?"

"It's a dog."

Harad answered immediately.

Seria felt it was cruel.

"If such a dog, others call it a person...... is it a person?"

"To those people, it would be a person."

If a demon, were not a demon.

If no different from any person.

Strong or weak, protecting or needing protection, possessing common emotions.

"Then."

If not abominable.

"......What have I been killing all this time?"

How were they different from neighbors?

"Wimar couldn't say those words."

Harad laughed bitterly.

"That's why he died."

That emotion.

Seria didn't dare feel it was abominable.