Chapter 246 : Chapter 246
Chapter 246: Harein
There is no blacksmith who makes only the tip of a sword sturdy.
The entire blade becomes stronger. Harad’s tempering had been like that as well.
There was only one vague addition to it.
Not only did he become sturdier, but his body’s overall performance improved too.
His hearing was one of those things. He was not quite at Ellen’s level, but if Harad focused, he could overhear quite a lot.
“Please, at least have a look at our children.”
A voice drifted in from outside the window.
It belonged to a poor slave trader too impoverished to own a shop. He was a gaunt middle-aged man, and he had set up his place in front of the inn.
“Aren’t they too young? How much?”
“Oh dear, my apologies. These ones have already been sold. They’re to be transferred to the Church.”
“They’re lucky.”
The curtains covering the window were unusually thick.
They were meant to block the fierce sunlight. The moment Harad pulled them open, he frowned. As soon as the sunlight touched him, sweat began pouring down his body.
The cityscape beyond the window was familiar.
The clothing was familiar too. Only half of it.
The other half was exotic. Some went about bare-chested, while others wrapped their entire bodies in thin, long cloth. The former were those with thick skin, and the latter were those with delicate skin, or those of value.
By evening, everyone would probably be wrapped up tight.
That was the kind of land the desert was.
To be precise, this place lay before the desert.
Akuldag. The land of a southern imperial Margrave, bordering the desert.
‘We’ve come far.’
It was a fitting choice of location.
The Church had not conquered the desert.
Beyond those walls lay Norbu, where no god dwelled.
It had fallen far from its former glory, but it had once been another empire that rivaled Enverque.
‘Even so, this is still the Empire.’
Akuldag bordered Norbu, but it was unquestionably imperial territory. If one were to set up a hideout, it would have been better to go a little farther and make one inside the desert instead.
‘Either they have business in the Empire. Or the Empire is simply a more convenient environment.’
The former would mean imperial incompetence.
The latter would mean there was a traitor in the Empire.
There was no need to think on it any longer. Worrying about the Empire was Bahav Enverque’s responsibility, not Harad’s.
“Thank you!”
The poor slave trader had succeeded.
A customer wrapped from head to toe took hold of the leash around a black slave man’s neck and left down the street.
“How barbaric.”
The North’s beautiful barbarian clicked her tongue as she looked down at the sight. To Ellen, slavery was an unfamiliar thing. There were few slaves in the North.
The North and the desert.
Both were barren lands. But they had overcome that hardship in different ways. Where the North solved things with force alone, the desert solved them with money as well.
Harad had once heard someone say that the resource of water was the root of that difference.
‘The North has snow everywhere.’
He did not know whether it was true.
Harad had never cared for the desert in his life. Even Serzila was hot. How could anyone live in a place like this?
“Are they allowed to do that?”
“If you can call it anything, it’s tradition. The Church isn’t very fond of it, though.”
“Then why don’t they stop it?”
“Because there are not many slaves who are there unjustly, or so I’ve heard.”
Harad had lived tucked away in the North, so even his knowledge of slavery was shallow.
“They say most slaves become slaves because they were born to slave parents, or because they want to pay off debt with their own bodies, or because they have nothing left to sell except themselves.”
That was why many mercenaries became slaves as well.
They became slaves after going completely bankrupt. If they had ability, they were freed before long. Slavery was a status one could cast off at any time so long as one had money. That was why slave arenas were so popular.
“What about those children?”
Ellen pointed to the young slaves who were soon to be transferred to the Church. That was why she looked so displeased. To the North, children were a reverse scale.
“There aren’t many of them. But there aren’t none.”
Those children were probably born to slave parents.
Since they were still too young to earn money, they remained slaves.
“The Church usually buys children like that. Because they still haven’t planted their flag in Norbu.”
The origin of slavery lay in the desert state of Norbu.
The Church had still not taken control of Norbu.
“They usually buy them like that, free them, and raise them as believers. If they show promise, they become priests.”
Since the Church could not yet dismantle the system itself, it bought even child slaves.
“The Church has money rotting away. So it spends it on good deeds before it rots.”
“Indulgences?”
Ellen said the word.
It was not something sold in the North. She had probably picked it up somewhere.
“That’s one of their main sources of income too.”
“Do they work?”
“Only the dead would know.”
Harad did not think so.
“But they really make money from something like that?”
“They sell comfort.”
They eased the hearts of those soon to die.
“Still. I heard they sell them for absurd prices.”
“The more expensive it is, the rarer its value becomes.”
If they sold it cheaply, who would believe in its efficacy?
And in any case, those willing to buy it would buy it no matter the price.
Indulgences existed for those who had no vitality left, only overflowing wealth and regret.
Ellen wore a complicated expression.
That was what the Church was. To mages, it was black. To the world, it was closer to white.
***
It was easy enough to blend into the streets.
This was the desert, where slaves were countless, and Akuldag, bordering that desert, had lax inspections.
But they could not move freely.
This was imperial territory. And hidden somewhere in it was a hideout of the Tower of Earthquakes.
There was no way to assume there were no mages of the Liberation Tower here.
The Rebellion Faction of the Liberation Tower wagged its tail in hopes of currying favor with the Otherworld. There was nothing strange about them lurking around Akuldag.
‘The Rebellion Faction of the Liberation Tower has information on me.’
They knew Harad was a mage of Serzila. Shura had been kidnapped in Serzila.
If they ran into one another, that connection might be exposed.
Harad had to hide his face.
Ellen was in a freer position than Harad.
Though she was supposedly collateral kin of Serzila, her identity was not publicly known. She had crossed paths with the Rebellion Faction of the Liberation Tower from time to time, but she had never left behind any witnesses.
The Rebellion Faction likely had little interest in Ellen anyway. How could creatures skulking in the shadows dare lay hands on Serzila? What they wanted was Harad’s head and nothing else.
But Ellen stood out too much to roam the streets alone.
She was the sort of beauty who could not help but draw attention. Her skin was also far too pale, so anyone could see she did not belong anywhere near the desert.
That left only one option.
Kubel opened the door just a crack and entered carefully. He was not sneaking in; he simply did not want anyone outside peeking in.
“You’ve worked hard.”
Kubel was completely bare-chested.
He looked like a bear with furious muscles flexed to the limit. Anyone would have taken him for a mercenary. And not just any mercenary, but the kind who would make you piss yourself if your eyes met his.
“I don’t know if I’m doing this right.”
Kubel said it with a fearsome face unlike his usual self.
He was not merely pretending to be a mercenary. They were chasing after Shura.
“She wasn’t among the street slaves.”
Harad nodded.
That was only natural. No one would come all the way to the far North just to kidnap a child slave. And the kidnapping had been done by mages, no less.
He did not bother pointing out that Kubel had never needed to check in the first place. Kubel was a father whose daughter had been abducted. Such needless anxiety was only natural.
Kubel unpacked his things.
They were clothes. Harad and Ellen needed to change their appearance first of all.
Ellen spread them out with fascination. Harad clicked his tongue. He already hated the idea of wearing them. Even now, with his chest bare, sweat was pouring off him like rain. Those clothes left only the hands and feet exposed.
“At least you seem to have made contact safely.”
“Yes.”
They had jammed the key in and come here with no preparation. They had no money. The clothes Kubel brought had been provided by an Intelligence Bureau agent of Serzila.
The inn fee was the same.
The Intelligence Bureau was everywhere and nowhere.
“Did they know anything about the Tower of Earthquakes?”
Kubel shook his head.
The Intelligence Bureau agent infiltrated into Akuldag had not known there was a hideout of the Otherworld here.
“So we’ll have to find it ourselves.”
The one who had taken Shura was a mage.
Only today had the Akuldag agent realized that there were mages here at all.
“There must be places an agent would find difficult, or impossible, to approach.”
Kubel nodded. He was the only one of the three who could move around freely. Harad had already told Kubel what he needed to find out.
“The only places he can’t get into are the lord’s castle and the auction house.”
There were ranks even among slaves.
The auction house dealt in high-grade slaves.
The desert, where the Church’s influence was weak, lay right nearby. And yet the Tower of Earthquakes had established a hideout here in Akuldag. That meant they needed not the desert, but Akuldag.
‘Unless Akuldag is covering for them.’
The auction house was backed by Akuldag.
“It must be the auction house.”
A valuable Origin.
The kidnappers had described Shura’s Origin that way. Value was a thing assigned to what could be bought and sold.
“They say only nobles or those carrying invitations are allowed into the auction house.”
“Did they get an invitation?”
“No.”
“And a way to get one?”
Kubel shook his head.
The Intelligence Bureau agent did not know that either.
“He thinks they’re invitations for the private amusements of noble lords.”
That had been the agent’s interpretation.
Harad rubbed his nose. To him, it smelled of something worse. Shura had been kidnapped. She had not been targeted because she was a child. The kidnappers wanted her Origin.
“I think we’ll have to go to the auction house.”
Harad was half certain that everything started there. Beside him, Ellen nodded.
“You can tell mages apart.”
“……That’s true.”
Come to think of it, that had become part of the setting.
“The problem is how to get in.”
“Should we just storm the place?”
Ellen was violent in the very Serzila way.
“That’s Cassion’s role.”
Their roles had already been divided. If it were a road, it had split into two branches. Cassion would handle the violent path. Harad had to take the opposite one.
“Nobles and invitations. So only honored guests are allowed in.”
First, he had to become an honored guest.
“And while doing that, I also have to hide my face. If the auction house is tied to mages, the Rebellion Faction of the Liberation Tower may be involved.”
Harad must not be exposed as Harad.
If that happened, it would turn into open war. Shura would be put in danger.
“How troublesome.”
If Jis were here, none of this would matter.
But no matter how much time passed, there was still no word of Jis. He was probably clinging to Shura’s side, or trapped in a situation where he could not move easily.
‘As for the Moon… I’d better assume that’s useless.’
The Moon’s Crystal Ball had long since gone dark.
The distance had simply become too great.
Even for the Moon, it seemed there was no power left to communicate all the way here from the Otherworld.
“What about a slave and a slave trader?”
Ellen suggested it.
“Who?”
“Kubel and me. You stay here. If we go as some nameless slave trader, they’ll inspect us more strictly.”
Ellen as the slave, Kubel as the slave trader.
Harad let out a hollow laugh.
Certainly. It would probably work. Kubel might be an unverified slave trader, but Ellen was the sort of slave who would make anyone drool on sight.
“I refuse.”
It was a method Harad did not want to use.
“I’d still be safe.”
“I still refuse.”
Harad shook his head firmly.
If it came to that, he would rather go out as the slave himself.
‘But my face cannot be sold. Not under any circumstances. My identity as the sun cannot be exposed. Even the Moon warned me there’s some great figure involved….’
Tap, tap.
The fingers drumming on the desk suddenly stopped.
It was then.
“You just thought of something, didn’t you?”
Ellen pointed at Harad’s face.
“That’s the face you make when you’ve just thought of something.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“That’s a lie.”
“…….”
She was right.
Regrettably, and infuriatingly, Harad had realized a way to become an honored guest after all.
“You did think of something. Say it. This isn’t the time to be picky.”
Above all else, Shura came first.
“……That Magical Item. The, ah…”
Kubel was here.
Harad spoke as indirectly as he could.
“The what? What Magical Item?”
“That special Magical Item you said you’d show me. Back in the hidden heart of the Flower District.”
“Oh.”
At once, Ellen understood.
“What about it?”
“Do you still have it? If you don’t, then never mind.”
Of course she had it.
And at the same time, Harad wished she didn’t.
“Ah. Ah, ah, ah!”
Ellen’s exclamation deepened by degrees.
“I have it. I’ll give it to you!”
“Why do you even have it?”
“I brought it in case you didn’t believe me and I needed to show you.”
“…….”
The excuse came immediately.
Right now, Ellen was in a state of genius.
Probably because of Shura.
Which meant Harad had to do it too.
…Because Shura was involved.
***
“Lady Harad?”
“You called?”
Lady Harad answered.
It was an extraordinarily beautiful voice.
“Turn around once.”
Abundant hair, brighter than gold, swayed at her waist.
Her amber eyes were deep and intense.
“It’s perfect. Beautiful. Ah, you need a different name too. Haren. What do you think?”
“It reminds me of Hi—Hiren.”
“Then let’s call you Harein. That fits better.”
Because it was Elaine’s Magical Item.
“Lady Harein?”
“You called?”
“Not that.”
“Did you call for me?”
“Tsk.”
“What is the problem?”
Harad frowned.
“You’re the sun. Then you have to act like a king.”
She was right.
Harein was a king.
The king the Moon had prophesied.
“So I should do it like this.”
For Harad, that manner of speech came quite easily.
“Is this better now?”
“……Just now, you sounded exactly like that bitch.”
Ellen shivered slightly as if she had gooseflesh.
“Your speech is short.”
Harad looked down at her and smiled.
Just like Grand Duke Elaine.